It’s so close to the start of Na/GloPoWriMo that we can practically read the poems already! Okay, maybe not exactly that, but we’re certainly starting to feel the bubbling sensation that portends imminent inspiration.

We’ll be back tomorrow with our first daily featured participant and resource, along with a prompt. But for now, and to help out all of you for whom April 1 comes a bit earlier than it does to Na/GloPoWriMo’s secret headquarters (yes, our lair is built into a volcano), here’s an early-bird prompt: Pick a word from the list below. Then write a poem titled either “A [your word]” or “The [your word]” in which you explore the meaning of the word, or some memory you have of it, as if you were writing an illustrative/alternative definition.

• Cage
• Ocean
• Time
• Cedar
• Window
• Sword
• Flute

Happy writing!

Happy 30^th of March, everyone! April is just a hair’s breadth away from us (but not a hare’s breath, which is different). We hope you’re feeling excited about the prospect of writing 30 poems in 30 days.

Tomorrow, we’ll have an early-bird prompt for those of you whose position relative to the international date line means that April 1 arrives a few hours in advance. But in the meantime, why not check out the “Archive of the Now”? While it appears to have stopped updating a few years back – becoming more archive than now, if you get our drift – it remains a pleasingly organized clearinghouse of recordings of contemporary (well, as of ten years ago) British poets.

Hello, poetry fans! We’re just three days out from April 1, and the beginning of National/Global Poetry Writing Month. We assume you’ve been spending March deep within your poetry caverns, meditating on metaphors, and clearing your minds of attachments to non-metrical things. (Actually, we don’t assume that at all – we’re just glad you’re here!)

As we wait out the maddeningly long month of March, why not check out these images of “spine poems”? As the phrase implies, these are poems made up out of stacked book titles, visible in the books’ spines. If you’re feeling creative, you could get a jump-start on your poetic output by trying to put together a spine poem of your own.

We’ll be back tomorrow with another resource, and then on March 31 with an early-bird prompt.

Hello, everyone! April 1 is just 15 days away, and that means Na/GloPoWriMo 2024 is nearly upon us. I hope you’re excited for this year’s challenge, and that you’re sharpening your poetry pencils (or, er, your keyboards) in anticipation.

We’ll be back in the three days leading up to April 1, but in the meantime, to help get you in the mood to write, here’s a giant list of poetry podcasts. It may sound a bit strange, but I find inspiration often strikes while I’m listening to poetry. And it helps, too, that with podcasts, I can listen while doing the dishes, folding the laundry, or just looking off into the distance as if I were posing for a particularly moody rock album cover. Something about engaging multiple senses –listening, movement– really helps me come up with new ideas (which is also why I always have a pen and a tiny notebook to hand).

UPDATED: to fix the link, which was going to the wrong place. Whoops!

Hello, everyone!

It’s getting to be that time of year again! National/Global Poetry Writing Month is just 30 days away! If you’re not familiar with the project, during Na/GloPoWriMo (known to the uninitiated as “April”) poets of all stripes and levels of experience commit to writing a poem a day.

There’s no secret handshakes or application forms. All you have to do is write a poem every day from April 1 to April 30. If you’ll be posting your efforts to a blog or other internet space this year, you can submit the link using our “Submit Your Site” form, and your website will show up in our “Participants’ Sites” list.

And if you’re not planning to post your work online? No worries! Na/GloPoWriMo doesn’t require that at all. All you have to day is write a poem a day for April. And if you get started late or skip a day — well, that’s fine, too. The idea behind Na/GloPoWriMo is to encourage you to get your pen (or keyboard) in hand — not to beat yourself up.

As always, we’ll be posting an optional daily prompt to help you get inspired. We’ll also be featuring a different participant each day, as well as a daily poetry-related resource.

For those of you that would like buttons/badges to post on your blogs or websites to show your participation, here is this year’s crop!:

And a hint for those of you who would like to communicate with fellow Na/GloPoWriMo-ers — the title of each day’s post is a link that will take you to a comment section for hte post. This is a great place to paste links to your daily output during Na/GloPoWriMo, and to find other participants’ poems.

We’ll be back on the 15th of March, as start really counting down to April 1! If you have questions in the meantime, please contact us at napowrimonet AT gmail DOT com.