Hello, all. We’ve less than a week to go until NaPoWriMo. If you’re hungry for poetry news in the meantime (or at any time, really), you could do worse than visit Harriet, the blog of the Poetry Foundation. You’ll find short posts on new magazines, poetry in the headlines (yes, sometimes mainstream news outlets write about poetry), and longer posts by guest bloggers.

If you’d like to check out something a bit more NaPoWriMo-specific, NaPoet and blogger Judy Kleinberg graciously invited me to contribute a guest post for her blog, which covers poetry news, mainly in the Pacific Northwest. It’s up today! Many thanks to Judy for asking me to contribute.

Hello! It’s just seven days until NaPoWriMo begins. Each day until next Tuesday, I’ll be posting a poetry resource to help get you inspired.

First up, nothing helps me write like reading poetry. Whether a particular line gets me going, or I just don’t like a poem so much that I write what I think is a better one, reading is, for me at least, how writing gets started.

But what to read? Here’s where book reviews can be helpful. Luckily for us, Timothy Liu over at Coldfront Magazine is reviewing 100 books in 100 days. He’s just up to his ninth book, which means we’ll see reviews throughout NaPoWriMo. Maybe something he loves will pique your interest, or maybe you’ll be so annoyed at him canning what you think is a great book/poet that you’ll go re-read them. Either way, I hope it will help you start to prepare for NaPoWriMo.

NaPoWrimo begins next Tuesday! Here on the east coast of the United States, at least, spring has been slow in coming. But neither time nor tide (nor a foot of snow) can keep NaPoWriMo from happening.

Thanks to everyone who has sent in ideas for prompts and featured magazines/presses. Keep ‘em coming! It’s wonderful to learn about all the different places that Na-Poets have had their work published, and a good reminder that even if the poems you write during NaPoWriMo are just unfinished drafts, they may lead to work that will be published in a magazine, or even form part of a book.

For the next week, I’ll be posting a little count-down to NaPoWriMo. In the meantime, here’s a little reminder that you can follow along with NaPoWriMo via twitter and on Facebook – check out @napowrimo2014, and the NaPoWriMo facebook page.

Hello, all. It’s just two weeks until NaPoWriMo starts. I hope you are beginning to feel inspired! Thanks to everyone who has sent in ideas for prompts. I’d also like your help with something else. Last year, I featured a different poetry-themed website each day, mostly blogs that offer book reviews. This year, I’d like to feature small presses and magazines, specifically those who have published NaPoWriMo-ers. Whether you’ve participated in NaPoWriMo for years, or are doing it for the first time, if you’ve had a poem, chapbook, pamphlet or book published (or soon to come out), I’d love to know the magazine/press. Just write me at napowrimonet-AT-gmail-DOT-com.

Hello, all. It’s just three weeks until NaPoWriMo! Sign-ups are open, and we already have people stepping forth to declare their intentions to write 30 poems over the month of April.

Just like last year, I will be posting optional prompts every day during April. I’ve been brainstorming prompts all year, trying my best not to repeat prompts from last year, or the year before. But I would love your help! If you have an idea for a prompt, please email me at napowrimonet-AT-gmail-DOT-com. Suggesters of all used prompts will get a shout-out on the site, as well as the warm fuzzy glow that happens every time you help to usher a poem or two into existence.

Interested in a NaPoWriMo button for your blog or website? I’ve made these two:

or you might consider this fine set of buttons made by Ivy Alvarez back in 2007. She even has an IntPoWriMo button.

Hello, all! It’s that time of year again — time to start thinking about NaPoWriMo, and the prospect of writing a poem a day for the day of April! Sign-ups are now open — last year we had more than 2500 participants! I hope that we’ll be able to break that record this year.

We’ve done a little bit of housekeeping work on the site — most importantly, we’ve added a search feature to the participants’ list, so that you can search for sites by name. We’re also upgrading our commenting system — please bear with us as we work out the kinks in that during the run-up to April.

If you’d like to follow along with NaPoWriMo-related posts on Twitter, check out @napowrimo2014. You can also follow along on Facebook.

Another NaPoWriMo has come and gone! My thanks to everyone who participated, and a special shout-out to those of you who met the challenge and wrote 30 poems. If you didn’t quite make it this year, however, don’t worry — there’s always next time.

Thanks also to everyone who wrote in with comments and suggestions for the website. I hope to implement several improvements for next year. In the meantime, all sites, posts, and comments will be left up for at least a month or two. Thanks again, everyone, and I hope you had fun!

Hello, all! It’s the final day of NaPoWriMo 2013. Thank you all for participating — this has been the biggest year yet. More than 2000 people signed up!

Our poetry-related link for the day is to Lemonhound, where you’ll find essays and reviews on poetry and poetics, as well as new poems by contemporary poets.

Our featured participant’s blog for the day is Joanna Penn Cooper. Her poems have a serious levity to them — a sort of humorous gravity. Is that a contradiction? Maybe, but take a look and perhaps you’ll see what I mean.

And now our final (and still optional) prompt! I know I’ve used this one in prior years, but it’s one of my favorites, so bear with me. Find a shortish poem that you like, and rewrite each line, replacing each word (or as many words as you can) with words that mean the opposite. For example, you might turn “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” to “I won’t contrast you with a winter’s night.” Your first draft of this kind of opposite poem will likely need a little polishing, but this is a fun way to respond to a poem you like, while also learning how that poem’s rhetorical strategies really work. (It’s sort of like taking a radio apart and putting it back together, but for poetry). Happy writing!

Hello, all! Just two days left now. I’m so happy to see how many of you have made it this far!

Our poetry-related link for the day is to htmlgiant, a literary blog that routinely features articles and reviews on new poetry.

Today’s featured participant’s blog is undercaws. The poem for Day 27 was put together from overheard conversation, as discussed in the very interesting process notes. It can be great fun to learn how a poem gets made — and this one is no exception.

And now our (optional, as always) prompt. In honor of the many poets outside of the United States who are participating in NaPoWriMo, Gloria Gonsalves (originally from Tanzania and now living in Germany) has suggested that we try writing poems that contain at least five words in other languages. You could perhaps write a poem that takes place in a foreign country or, like our featured blogger for the day, write a poem based on overheard conversation (inclusive of foreign words). So whether you have to dig deep into what you remember from high-school Spanish, or use a dictionary to translate a few interesting words into other languages, why not drop a Mohrrübe or an asciugamano into your work today (even if it seems de trop. Happy writing!

Hello, all. We’re in the home stretch now — counting today, there’s just three days left in NaPoWriMo.

Our poetry-related link for the day is to Montevidayo, a multi-authored blog that host reviews, conversations, essays, and other evolving conversations on poetry, poetics, art, movies, and the general artistic-poetic condition.

Our featured participant’s site for the day is The Bloof Books blog, where many of the poets published by Bloof Books are posting their NaPoWriMo efforts. You’ll find poems by Shanna Compton, Peter Davis, Kirsten Kaschock, Becca Klaver, Pattie McCarthy, Danielle Pafunda, Catie Rosemurgy, Sandra Simonds, Jared White, and Elisabeth Workman.

And now, the prompt (as always, the prompt is optional). Today, I’d like you to pick a color. How many synonyms are there for your color (e.g., green, chartreuse, olive, veridian)? Is your color associated with a specific mood (e.g., red = passion, rage, blue = hope, truth). Look around the room, take a walk — note everything you see that is your chosen color. Then start writing, using the color as a guide.

If you’re having trouble getting started, here are a few examples of “color” poems — Federico Garcia Lorca’s Romance Sonambulo, e.e. cummings’ All in Green Went My Love Riding, and (a personal favorite) Diane Wakoski’s Blue Monday. Happy writing!