The Poetry Marathon

Some Sort of Sunrise

In the kitchen there are six eggs cracked in a bowl, shell-less.
My husband wakes after me, his hair, a curly thicket. We eat
the mystery eggs with cheese, the yoke dripping on The New York Times.

Outside our neighbor’s kids play in the mud of our yard, their
bare legs, thorn scratched and strong. The drunk down the street
is blasting Bob Dylan again, and the kids sing along to Lay Lady Lay.

We don’t charge their parents very much for babysitting.

(a sevenling, and the end of the half marathon for me, it feels so strange.)

To Witness Normal Magic

When the firefly’s are close
to the marsh reeds, it is our custom
to walk down the wooden pathway of
repurposed boards that tip out of place,
to see their small flicker, like a lighter held
by an invisible hand in the air wavering as the bugs come together.

This is something I want to share with you in words or
in person, because no photo can capture this. My daughter flung
herself into
the lake the first time she saw them alight, so filled with hope for the
impossible to be true. Later when I found her in the bedroom’s
nightlight glow, her head was on the pillow and her feet were in the air.

A Golden Shovel inspired by Suite (to Hoku) by Bill Knott

Thanks to a generous donation from an anonymous donor there will be a 2019 Marathon Anthology!

All individuals who complete the 2019 Poetry Marathon and Half Marathon are eligible to submit to the anthology. Submissions will open about two weeks after the Marathon is over.

Jennifer Faylor a poet, editor, and past poetry marathon participant will be the editor of the 2019 Poetry Marathon Anthology. We are very excited in every way for this to happen!

The 2017 Poetry Marathon Anthology is now available for purchase.

I am so happy with how it turned out this year, visually and lyrically. This anthology reflects the magic and madness of the event, not to mention the wide range of writers that participate in it.

You can buy copies of the anthology here,

If you are outside of the US, the UK, and France, you might have to wait a few weeks. CreateSpace takes their time making it available in other countries and it will not be available to buy directly for the price we set, in all countries. We wish this wasn’t the case and apologize for the delay and potential availability issues. If only publishing internationally was easier.