Hello, everyone! It’s March 31^st, Na/GloPoWriMo Eve! I hope everyone  is feeling ready to try their hand at this year’s challenge.

As usual, we’ll be featuring a participant each day, providing a poetry-related resource, and a daily prompt (which you have the choice of using or ignoring as you please).

In the past, our resources have included interviews with poets, links to poetry-related podcasts and videos, links to online chapbooks, and more. This year, we’ll be featuring links to web-based poetry readings. While readings have traditionally been highly local – taking place in bars, coffee shops, libraries and private homes, so that only folks in the immediate vicinity can attend – one consequence of the coronavirus pandemic is that poetry reading series have taken their work online and into the world of Zoom and other videoconferencing platforms. This means people from around the world can hear their favorite poets reading live, and even ask questions. It’s not quite the same as an in-person reading, but it’s not worse – just different. And in some ways, better (e.g., you can wear your pajamas to the reading, and you don’t have to drive home afterwards).

The downside of a live reading, even one available through the internet, is that it’s at a particular date and time! So we’ll be featuring a mix of live readings and pre-recorded readings that you can watch or listen to at your leisure. We’ll point out the live readings a day before they’re actually scheduled to occur, to give you some advance notice and time to register or sign up for each event.

With that, here’s our first featured reading – pre-recorded so that you can enjoy it whenever you like. It’s the poet Mary Ruefle, giving a series of “28 Short Poetry Lectures” at Harvard’s Woodberry Poetry Room.

Finally, because April 1 arrives a few hours earlier for many of our participants than it does for us at Na/GloPoWriMo headquarters, we’re also featuring an early-bird prompt today. Today, we’d like to challenge you to spend a few minutes looking for a piece of art that interests you in the online galleries of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Perhaps a floral collar from the tomb of Tutankhamen? Or a Tibetan cavalryman’s suit of armor? Or a gold-and-porcelain flute? After you’ve selected your piece, study the photographs and the accompanying text. And then – write a poem! Maybe about who you imagine making the piece, or using it. Or how it wound up in the museum? Or even the life of the person who wrote the text about the piece – perhaps the Met has a windowless basement full of graduate students churning out artwork descriptions – who knows?

Happy writing!

We’re so close! April 1, and the start of Na/GloPoWriMo, is right around the corner.

We’ll be back tomorrow with an early-bird prompt, but in the meantime, you might check out the calendar for the O, Miami poetry festival. Many of this year’s events are taking place online, so poets far and wide can enjoy. Or, for another source of online April poetry events, there’s the Sierra poetry festival as well! (Hat tip to Kirsten Casey for pointing this festival out). Perhaps you’ll find a reading, workshop, or discussion that will inspire you and provide new insights for your writing throughout Na/GloPoWriMo.

Hello, everyone! There’s just three days to go until the beginning of National/Global Poetry Writing Month!

But that’s not all that’s going on, poetry-wise, in April. The New Orleans Poetry Festival is going virtual this year, and will be sponsoring online events every day in April. Perhaps one (or more) of the festival’s panel discussions and readings will pique your interest, and help you stay motivated and creative during this year’s challenge.

We’ll be back tomorow with information on another April-wide poetry festival with events that might interest you. On March 31, we’ll have our first, “early-bird” prompt for you. And then, on April 1, it’s off to the races with thirty straight days of poetry resources, featured participants, and prompts!

Hello, everyone! It’s March 15 and that means there’s just half a month left until April 1, and the start of Na/GloPoWriMo 2021.

We’ll be back in the few days leading up to April 1, but in the meantime, we wanted to point out that while we’ll be offering daily prompts to help you with your writing in April, we’re far from the only source for such daily inspiration! If our prompts don’t get your poem-engines going on a particular day (or if you just like to mix-and-match poetry prompts), you can also find prompts by Robert Lee Brewer at his April Poem-a-Day challenge. But wait, there’s more! Sundress Publications also offers a prompt every day (!) through their twitter account, using the hashtag #promptaday. You can also find a nice backlog of prompts at the website of the online journal urnal Winter Tangerine.

If you have a favorite source for prompts, please let us know in the comments (to access the comments for this post, just click on the post title, above!)

Hello, all. As we count down to April 1, and the start of this year’s Na/GloPoWriMo, we wanted to draw your attention to a special feature that Dissonance, a U.K.-based literary journal, is planning.

Specifically, they plan to publish a poem each day in April by a different poet. They are collecting submissions now. Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to show off a poem you first drafted during last year’s Na/GloPoWriMo — or at any other time of the year!

You can find more information on the planned feature, and how to submit work for consideration, here.

Hello, poetry lovers!

It’s March 1, 2021, and that means that National/Global Poetry Writing Month is just a month away.

Last year, Na/GloPoWriMo took place as coronavirus-based lockdowns swept across the globe, severing many of us from our family and friends, changing fundamental aspects of our daily lives, and casting a haze of trepidation over even the simplest errands. A year later, many of us are still facing the same pressures. But there is also reason to be hopeful. Last April, we took heart from how many of you were able to connect with one another through writing and sharing poetry. We are looking forward to this year’s Na/GloPoWriMo with the hope that it will give you a space to reflect on the past while moving with optimism into the future.

For those of you that are new to Na/GloPoWriMo, this is your opportunity, whether you’re a true novice or an old pro at writing poetry, to try your hand at writing a poem a day for the month of April.

How does it work? Simple — just 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.

There’s no fees, no prizes (other than the reward of writing poems), and no one will be looking over your shoulder. If you fall behind, you can catch up. If you feel like writing two poems a day, go for it! The idea is just to get your creative juices flowing.

As always, we’ll be featuring a new, optional prompt every day during the month, as well as a bonus “early-bird” prompt that will be posted on March 31. Each day we’ll also feature a participant’s work. And one positive of the pandemic has been that poetry reading series have moved online, so it’s easier than ever to see and hear your favorite poets read their work. We’ll feature a reading every day, alternating between recorded videos of past readings that you can peruse at your leisure, and scheduled readings that you can watch live.

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 — if you click on the title to each day’s post, you’ll find that the title is a link that will take you to a page specific to that day’s post, with a comment section. This is a great place to post links to your daily output during Na/GloPoWriMo, and to find other participants’ poems.

We’ll be back on the 15th of March, as we build up to our count-down to April 1! And if you have questions in the meantime, please contact us at napowrimonet AT gmail DOT com.

Hello, everyone! We made it through another Na/GloPoWriMo. I hope you feel that you’ve written good poems (or at least good drafts!) and stretched yourself in your writing.

I also want to thank you for coming back to this site each year! It heartens me, especially in this particularly hard April, to see so many people gather for the love of poetry, and support one another in their efforts!

Our final featured participant for the year is Gloria D. Gonsalves, who reminds us, with her poem based on Day 30’s “returning” prompt, that a “rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.”

Na/GloPoWriMo will be back next year, of course, with more prompts and resources. In the meantime, all the posts from this year (and comments) will remain available – just as the posts and comments from prior years are preserved here. We’ll also keep the featured participants’ list up and active until early next year, when we will start collecting the new list for 2021.

In the meantime, if you just can’t get enough poetry prompts, you might enjoy the weekly prompts that Poets & Writers provides, these 30 prompts created by Kelli Russell Agodon, this list of 101 poetry prompts, or the weekly (and in April, daily) prompts provided by Robert Lee Brewer at Writer’s Digest. (UPDATE: You may also enjoy the Daily Prompt app, which will provide you with a prompt every day, direct to your iPhone).

 And until next April, happy writing!

Well, everyone, it’s finally here – the last day of NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo 2020! I hope you’ve enjoyed the challenge. For my part, it’s wonderful to see so many poets use each April to generate new work, and I am always buoyed to see familiar names and faces returning, and by how kindly and cheerfully you support one another in your writing practice. I’ll be back tomorrow with a final featured participant and some housekeeping notes, but in the meantime . . .

Today’s featured participant is paeansunpluggedblog, where you will find a charming ode to a doggy companion.

Our poetry resource for the day is this PDF of A Handbook of Poetic Forms, edited by Ron Padgett. Here you’ll find explanations and examples of many different styles of poetry, as well as poetic elements like assonance, metaphor, and rhyme.

And last, but not least, our final (optional) prompt! In some past years, I’ve challenged you to write a poem of farewell for our thirtieth day, but this year, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about something that returns. For, just as the swallows come back to Capistrano each year, NaPoWriMo and GloPoWriMo will ride again!

Happy writing!

Happy penultimate day of NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo, everyone!

Our featured participant today is Minutes Past Midnight, where the “remembered bedroom” prompt for Day 28 led to a detailed yet not entirely comforting remembrance.

Our featured resource for the day is a two-fer: (1) these tips on  how to memorize a poem, and (2) these tips on how to recite one out loud. It’s rather out of fashion right now, but I grew up memorizing lots of poems. Memorizing and reciting favorite poems is a very good way to internalize the rhythms and sounds of poetry (which helps in generating your own poems), but that’s not all memorizing and reciting can do. Memorized poems make good companions. Bored while doing dishes? Treat yourself to a dramatic recitation! Strangely, I find that I don’t get tired of reciting the poems that I’ve memorized – each time I do, I can play around with emphasizing different words, hasten or slow different lines, and consider the effect.

And now for our daily prompt (optional, as always). Today, I challenge you to write a paean to the stalwart hero of your household: your pet. Sing high your praises and tell the tale of Kitty McFluffleface’s ascension of Mt. Couch. Let us hear how your intrepid doggo bravely answers the call to adventure whenever the leash jingles.

If you don’t have a pet, perhaps you know one or remember one who deserves to be immortalized in verse. For inspiration, I direct you to a selection from an 18^th-century poem by Christopher Smart, Jubilate Agno, in which the poet’s praise for his cat ranges from “For he is docile and can learn certain things” all the way up to “For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.” Personally, I’m lucky if my cat doesn’t just sleep the day away, but I find her pretty delightful all the same.

Happy writing!

Happy Tuesday, everyone, and Happy 28^th Day of Na/GloPoWriMo. Including today, there are just three days left in our annual challenge. Congratulations to everyone who has made it this far! And if you joined us late, or are still catching up – no worries. Remember, there’s no law against writing poetry in May, or any other time.

Our featured participant for the day is benkohns, where you will find a spot-on review of the various software programs we are supposed to use to work and learn during these days of social distancing.

Speaking of socially distancing, our poetry resource for the day this online archive of the manuscripts of the famously reclusive Emily Dickinson. Now one of the most-admired poets the United States has produced, Dickinson was little known in her lifetime. She left behind hundreds of poems, often drafted on scraps of paper, backs of envelopes, etc. And an especial point of interest is her amendments and edits. She often provided several different alternatives for given nouns or verbs in poems, as if she was continually revising or trying out new ones. When I am revising my own poems, and come across a dull or commonplace noun or verb that seems  to drag down a line, I think  of Dickinson, and try to come up with four or five alternatives, seeking a word that is a little bit wild, and will help to deepen the poem, or even turn it in a new direction.

Today’s (optional) prompt is brought to us by the Emily Dickinson Museum. First, read this brief reminiscence of Emily Dickinson, written by her niece. And now, here is the prompt that the museum suggests:

Martha Dickinson Bianchi’s description of her aunt’s cozy room, scented with hyacinths and a crackling stove, warmly recalls the setting decades later. Describe a bedroom from your past in a series of descriptive paragraphs or a poem. It could be your childhood room, your grandmother’s room, a college dormitory or another significant space from your life.

Happy writing!