The Poetry Marathon

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.

Good morning! The challenge for hour one is to write a poem that contains the refrain “I am” at least six times. You can start every stanza with it, or be more subtle. You can take make the poem autobiographical or absurd, or best of all a mix of both.

Good luck and happy writing!

The marathon is fast approaching! 430 people from all around the globe have signed up to participate in the 2019 Poetry Marathon.

The official start time of the Marathon is 9 AM ET on June 22nd. If you need to find out when that is in your timezone go here.

If you applied to participate in the Poetry Marathon you should have already heard from us by now. If you have not heard from us please email us at poets@thepoetrymarathon.com.

Most people who participate set the whole day aside for the event. You get the most out of the event if you fully commit. Many poets write warm up poems during this week for this reason.

I prepare all food for the event beforehand and make sure I have a few treats on hand. Also, when doing the full marathon I set an alarm every hour on the hour to remind me to write.

Everyone is different but I usually spend a half hour of every hour of the marathon writing. I usually put a big pile of books on my desk and open them to random pages for inspiration when I’m stuck.

I wish everyone whose participating this year the best of luck! It’s good to see so many familiar faces and so many new ones.

The very first t-shirt for our event is now available here. There are three different color options. Any money we make (which won’t be much) will go towards future marathons.

We figure most people won’t want to order this t-shirt till they actually survive the marathon, but we wanted everyone to know about it in advance.

We may introduce other designs if this sells well, so feel free to give us suggestions in the comments.