Welcome back, everyone, for the final Sunday of Na/GloPoWriMo 2022.

Our featured participant for the day is another two-fer. First up, we have Rhyme and Reason‘s philosophical response to Day 23’s Kay-Ryan-esque prompt, and second, Xanku‘s humorous take.

Today, our featured online magazine is the amusingly-named Miracle Monocle, which has been publishing twice-yearly issues since 2010. From their latest issue, I’ll point out Jessica Barksdale’s “Zoo Story,” and Coleman Childress’s “Broken Cabins on the Beach.”

Last but not least, here’s our prompt for the day (optional, as always). Hard-boiled detective novels are known for their use of vivid similes, often with an ironic or sarcastic tone. Novelist Raymond Chandler is particularly adept at these. Here are a few from his novels:

• A few locks of dry, white hair clung to his scalp, like wild flowers fighting for life on a bare rock.
• Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.
• From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.
• She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight.
• He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.

Today, I’d like to challenge you to channel your inner gumshoe, and write a poem in which you describe something with a hard-boiled simile. Feel free to use just one, or try to go for broke and stuff your poem with similes till it’s . . . as dense as bread baked by a plumber, as round as the eyes of a girl who wants you to think she’s never heard such language, and as easy to miss as a brass band in a cathedral.

Happy writing!

Happy Saturday, all, and happy twenty-third day of Na/GloPoWriMo.

Today’s featured participant is Jane Dougherty Writes, where you’ll find a gently melancholy response to Day 22’s repetition prompt.

Our featured online magazine today is Peach Mag, which publishes poems on an ongoing basis, and then archives them based on yearlong “seasons.” Among the work that they’ve recently published, I’ll point you to Ai Li Feng’s “echolocation” and Bob Sykora’s “Crying on the Exercise Bike While Watching The Great British Bakeoff, February 2021.”

And now for our daily (optional) prompt. Today I’d like to challenge you to write a poem in the style of Kay Ryan, whose poems tend to be short and snappy – with a lot of rhyme and soundplay. They also have a deceptive simplicity about them, like proverbs or aphorisms. Once you’ve read a few, you’ll see what I mean. Here’s her “Token Loss,” “Blue China Doorknob,” “Houdini,” and “Crustacean Island.”

Happy writing!

Welcome back, all, for the twenty-second day of Na/GlaPoWriMo!

Today, our featured participant is Jessie Lynn McMains, who brings us a poem filled with lush detail and longing in response to Day 21’s memory-based prompt.

Our featured online magazine for the day is Five South, which has published three official “issues,” but also publishes poems every week. Among their recently published poems, I’ll point you to Alina Stefanescu’s “The Home is Six Hens Which Never Lay Eggs” and Erin Carlyle’s “Moon Landing.”

And now for our prompt (optional, as always). In honor of today’s being the 22^nd day of Na/GloPoWriMo 2022, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that uses repetition. You can repeat a sound, a word, a phrase, or an image, or any combination of things.

Happy writing! Happy writing! (See what I did there . . . ?)

Happy end of the third week of Na/GloPoWriMo 2022, everybody!

I was very pleased to see how many of you ran with Day Twenty’s rather silly food-based prompt. Again, I just couldn’t choose a single featured participant. First, we have Poet Voice‘s poem in which kielbasa tries to tempt a vegetarian, and second, Orangepeel‘s poem in which “brussels sprouts make their case.”

Today’s featured online magazine is The Night Heron Barks, which has published five issues since 2020. From their latest issue, I’ll point you to Michael Montlack’s “At 23” and Adrie Rose’s “The Flower is Haunted By.”

Today’s (optional) prompt is one I got from the poet Betsy Sholl. This prompt asks you to write a poem in which you first recall someone you used to know closely but are no longer in touch with, then a job you used to have but no longer do, and then a piece of art that you saw once and that has stuck with you over time. Finally, close the poem with an unanswerable question.

Happy writing!

Hello, everyone. I’m finding it hard to believe, myself, but as of today we are two-thirds of the way through Na/GloPoWriMo 2022.

Today’s featured participant is, again, two participants. In response to Day 19’s “command” prompt, Jessica McWhirt brings us a tough but tender elegy, while Elizabeth Burnham provides us with a meditation on the role of the poet.

Our featured online journal for today is Diode, which has been publishing quarterly issues since 2007. In their newest issue, I’ll point you to Heidi Seaborn’s poem “upon seeing an elephant seal in front of my house in West Seattle” and Michael Robins’ “If One Has a Mind That Way.”

And now for today’s (optional) prompt. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that anthropomorphizes a kind of food. It could be a favorite food of yours, or maybe one you feel conflicted about. I feel conflicted about Black Forest Cake, for example. It always looks so pretty in a bakery window, and I want to like the combination of cherries and chocolate . . . but I don’t. But how does the cake feel about it?

Happy writing!

Happy Tuesday, all, and happy nineteeth day of Na/GloPoWriMo.

Our featured participant today is Ute Kelly, who brings us a lyrical and mysterious response to Day 18’s “five answers” prompt.

Today’s featured online journal is The Cortland Review, which has published nearly ninety issues over more than twenty years. In their newest issue, I’ll point you to Justin Janisse’s “Missing You, Expensively” and Grace Q. Song’s “Birthday.”

And now for our daily (optional) prompt! Today’s challenge is to write a poem that starts with a command. It could be as uncomplicated as “Look,” as plaintive as “Come back,” or as silly as “Don’t you even think about putting that hot sauce in your hair.” Whatever command you choose, I hope you have fun ordering your readers around.

Happy writing!

Happy eighteenth day of Na/GloPoWriMo, everybody!

Today’s featured participant is Sunra Rainz, who provides a moving response to Day 17’s canine prompt.

Our featured online journal for the day is Waccamaw. They’ve typically published issues twice a year, and are now up to their 26^th. In their newest issue, I’ll point you to Elizabeth Muscari’s poem “Cannoli,” and John A. Nieves’ “They Named Us All John/Juan.”

Last but not least, here is today’s prompt (optional, as always). It’s based on Faisal Mohyuddin’s poem “Five Answers to the Same Question.” Today, I’d like to challenge you to write your own poem that provides five answers to the same question – without ever specifically identifying the question that is being answered.

Happy writing!

Hello, everyone. I hope you’re ready for the seventeenth day of Na/GloPoWriMo because, for better or worse, that’s where we are!

Our featured participant for the day is Poem Dive, where you’ll find a birthday-gift in the form of a poem responding to our curtal sonnet prompt

Today’s featured online journal is Plume, which has published more than 120 issues since 2011! All of their archives are available, too, making Plume’s website a great place to discover new-to-you poets and poems. From their latest issue, I’ll point you toward David Wojahn’s “Threnody: December 2020” and Alan Shapiro’s “Sweet Nothings.”

And now here’s our daily (optional) prompt. This is a fun one – it’s a prompt developed by the comic artist Lynda Barry, and it asks you to think about dogs you have known, seen, or heard about, and then use them as a springboard into wherever they take you.

Happy writing!

Welcome to the second half of Na/GloPoWriMo 2022, everyone!

Today’s featured participant is, once again, two featured participants. First up, Flutterby’s NaPoWriMo, where the poem involves something that you are either mad for or couldn’t care less about — sports. And second, a rather haunting exploration of cryptocurrency by Katie Staten.

Our featured online journal today is The Leon Literary Review, which publishes a new issue every other month. From their most recent issue (their twelfth), I’ll point you in the direction of Meg Stout’s poem “Hinge,” and Lily Greenberg’s “To the boy who thinks his body, like a woman.”

And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a curtal sonnet. This is a variation on the classic 14-line sonnet. The curtal sonnet form was developed by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and he used it for what is probably his most famous poem, “Pied Beauty.” A curtal sonnet has eleven lines, instead of the usual fourteen, and the last line is shorter than the ten that precede it. Here are two other examples of Hopkins’ curtal sonnets: “Ash Boughs,” and “Peace.”

Happy writing!

Happy Friday, all! And happy half-way point of Na/GloPoWriMo 2022!

Our featured participant for the day is Voyages des Mots, which provides us with a moving response to Day Fourteen’s “opening scene” prompt.

Today’s featured online journal is Atticus Review, which has been publishing online since 2011. Among their recently published poems, I’ll point you to Meghan Sterling’s “A,” and Martha Silano’s “If We Were Not So Single Minded.”

Finally, here’s our daily (optional) prompt. This one may seem counter-intuitive, but today I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about something you have absolutely no interest in. This isn’t quite the same, I think, as something you’re indifferent to. For example, I have absolutely no interest in investment strategy. Anytime anyone tries to tell me about it, I want to put my fingers in my ears and go “lalalalalala.” My brain tries to shut down! This is honestly kind of funny, and I think this prompt has value precisely because it invites you to investigate some of the “why” behind resolutely not giving two hoots about something.

Happy writing!