The Poetry Marathon

Write a poem as a letter to a former version of yourself. Make that fact clear in the title. For example it could be called “Dear Former Self” or it could be much more specific such as “Dear Caitlin, Age 19 with the Broken Nose”.

The poem itself can focus on your past self or the future that is coming for it, or something else entirely.

Write a poem that contains at least five of the following words and possibly all ten.

Moonbeam

Coffee

Hush

Fog

Canteen

Damn

Concrete

fir

shelf

dock

Take a title of one of your favorite books and write a poem using that title as your title. Your poem can interact directly with the book or not at all. It is just the jumping off point.

OR

Look at your bookshelf or the main page of goodreads and pick a title of a book you have never read and know very little about. Turn that title into the title of your poem. Where you go from there is up to you.

The hour of the form poem is upon us. This hour is dreaded and beloved.

This year the form is the Sevenling. The creation of this form is attributed to Roddy Lumsden and it is based on the following poem by Anna Askhmatova.

He loved three things alone:
White peacocks, evensong,
Old maps of America.

He hated children crying,
And raspberry jam with his tea,
And womanish hysteria.

… And he married me.

The idea is that the poem has seven lines. Lines one to three should contain three connected or contrasting statements or list three details.

Lines four to six should contain three connected or contrasting statements or list three details.

The seventh line should serve as narrative summary, punchline, or a juxtaposition.

Sevenlings are often untitled and tend to be a little quirky and mysterious. To learn more about the sevenling you can go here.

The infamous song prompt! I get so nervous every year when I post this one. The idea is to listen to this song while writing or before writing, whichever works best with your process.

Write a poem about being stuck in a very small place, actually or metaphorically.

or

Write a poem about being locked out, actually or metaphorically.

Write a poem about a dream you have had, but in the poem itself you can never mention that it’s a dream. It can be clear by the content of the poem that it is a dream, but it doesn’t have to be. You can combine more than one dream if you wish to.

Chose one or more of the following images and write a poem inspired by that image.

Take a small walk, or just stroll around your house or apartment. When you are ready, stop, look around, take a deep breath what do you smell, feel what is near you in the air, under your feet, listen and hear what you normally miss; describe what your senses have been telling you but you have ignored.

Contributed by Stephan A. Kalinowski

Or

Go for a walk with your phone or another recording device. When you feel ready start recording a poem out loud while you walk. It could be about the walk itself, but when I use this method I’m often surprised by what I “write” about.

When you return home type it out to post. Feel free to edit.

Write a poem about magic. Magic as something real, magic as something imagined, magic in a fictional setting, magic in an urban situation, it can be about how children perceive the world as magic, or possibly magic, anything really. The word magic need not be mentioned, but it can be.