The Poetry Marathon

In her wonderful book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer writes — ‘In some Native languages the term for plants translates to “those who take care of us.’

Use any part of this quote (with credit), or the ideas it contains as a jumping off point for your poem this hour.

If you have a hard time connecting with this quote here are two others, also by Robin Wall Kimmerer, to consider.

“The land knows you, even when you are lost.”

Write a poem about a physical activity you do all the time. It could be something mundane and chore related, such as brushing your teeth or mowing the lawn, or it could be something you do for fun, or for your health, like running or swimming.

The poem can be about more than that physical activity, but it must start and end with it.

Congratulations Half Marathoners! I am so happy that you have completed 12 poems in 12 hours! That is wonderful. Thank you for joining us in this madness.

In the past I have personally verified that everyone who applied for a certificate was eligible and then I would make a certificate. That is not possible this year and so we will be operating on the honor system.

If you completed the Poetry Half Marathon please consider the following certificate yours, to update with your name, to print if you choose to do so. If you need any help altering the certificate please email me at poets@thepoetrymarathon.com

Click on the link below and download the edit ready certificate if you completed The Half Marathon. Congratulations again on your completion of The Half Marathon.

Here is a direct link to the image for editing.

The visual example of what the certificate will look like is right below this text.

Also remember that this year we will be putting together a 2020 Poetry Marathon Anthology.

Submissions will open July 6th and stay open till the 25th.

All submissions must include two poems, no more, no less. The subject line of all emails must be Poetry Submission. Poems must be included in the body of the email. The email address is  poetrymarathonsubmissions@gmail.com. But do not submit early! You must follow all the instructions below!

All poems submitted must be written during the 2020 Poetry marathon. All poems should be completely edited and contain no major grammatical errors.

The first word of every line should not have a capitalization unless it is intentional! Word has an auto caps feature that you can turn off by following the instructions below.

You must indicate which hour each poem was written in. Only poets who completed the whole or half marathon will be eligible to submit.

There is no guarantee that by submitting your poem will be selected although the goal is to include one poem by everyone who submits.

Digital copies will be made available for free to any contributor. Print copies will be available for a reasonable price and any money that is made from them will go towards covering the cost of the marathon.

Want to know what the 2019 Poetry Marathon Anthology was like? Pick up your copy here.

This prompt has steps, and you have to do them in order. Don’t look ahead to the next step before completing the previous one.

1. Grab a book off a shelf at random.

2. Read the first line of the book and the last line of the book.

3. Pick one of them.

4. You have to use every single word in this line in a poem. Those words can be used at any point in the poem.

Write a poem about or set in a place you have never been to. It could be a real concrete location, or something more metaphorical, imaginary or fictional – somewhere over the rainbow comes to mind.

Please listen to Moonshadow by Cat Stevens (Here’s the handy Youtube link) and then write a poem as soon as the song ends.

Write a poem containing at least five of the following ten words. If you want it can include all ten words. If this prompt seems at all familiar, it is probably because we do it every year, just with different words.

Firefly

Bottle

Mask

Porridge

Zoom

Lethargy

Treeline

Heat

Strange

Cottage

Emoji Poetry – prompt contributed by Jennifer Faylor

Look at these emoji versions of poems and write a poem by translating one of them back into verse. You can deviate from translating at any point if a poem takes off in a different direction, or write about the concept of or your experience with emojis instead. For additional inspiration check out one of Stephanie Berger and Carina Finn’s emoji poems here.

Write a poem titled Season of the (fill in the blank).

The fill in the blank could be a reference, it could be an actual season, it could be something abstract, or concrete, anything you want.

The key is to write a poem that matches, or interacts with that title.

Write about your ideal day using only imagery and sensory details. It is fine if it is fragmentary.