“Write a poem from the inside out.”
This prompt was submitted by Jo Eckler and is as she phrased it “Purposefully vague”
24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
“Write a poem from the inside out.”
This prompt was submitted by Jo Eckler and is as she phrased it “Purposefully vague”
Set a timer for one minute and write a stanza. Stop the timer. Clear your mind.
Set a timer for 90 seconds and write another stanza. Clear your mind.
Set a timer for 2 minutes and write another stanza.
Go back and edit all the stanzas. You can add extra stanza breaks or add section breaks. After you finish editing you can choose to do another timer session or two, or not.
Write a poem about a specific location that meant a lot to you as a child or teenager that you have not returned to in many years. It could be a house, a park, a country, anywhere that had particular significance. The focus of the poem could be on the location itself, or it could be on something(s) that happened there, or someone you spent a lot of time with there.
The prompt for this hour is to write a four stanza poem. The stanzas can be as long or short as you want them to be. In each of the stanzas, you most repeat one of the lines in the first stanza. It can be the same line repeated in each stanza or a different line in each stanza. This can have a dramatically different effect, depending on the length of the line and the length of the stanza.
Choose one of these images to write about. You don’t have to describe what is going on in the image (although you can if you want to). It is just the jumping off point.
How do we share yearnings when we cannot speak of them? For additional context and inspiration you can listen to Leonard Cohen’s song “Take this Longing”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqVvNpcX5HQ&feature=youtu.be
Prompt contributed by Ramona Elke
Write a a poem in which the four elements (Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water) play an important part.
Contributed by Bhasha Dwivedi.
The Poetry Marathon is a yearly event where poets write 24 poems in 24 hours. There is also a half marathon option where poets write 12 poems in 12 hours. The full marathon goes from 9 AM ET on August 5th till 9AM ET on August 6th. There are two half marathon options. One starting at 9 AM ET on August 5th and the second starting at 9 PM ET on August 6th. To learn more about the marathon visit our main page here.
You can apply to register from today, July the 20th, through midnight eastern time on the 25th of July.
All applications are made through this form. (Follow the link to sign up)
If you have any questions please email us at poets@thepoetrymarathon.com
If this is your first marathon or half marathon, you have probably never done anything like this before. Even though this a writing event, you should treat it like you would running a marathon, albeit one you don’t necessarily have to be in great physical shape for.
Training for it is an important component for many. Lots of participates set aside an hour a day to write poems during the week leading up to the marathon. Others practice with test quarter marathons. Some just practice writing poems with a timer.
It is also important that you set aside time for The Poetry Marathon. Some people attempt the marathon while doing other things, like working an eight hour shift, or being the hostess at a friends wedding. This has historically not worked out well for anyone and leads to complaining and quitting.
A repeat half marathoner has done the poetry half marathon and a running half marathon in the same day successfully, but that is because the timing worked out. The events did not overlap.
As someone who is now on their fifth marathon, I know that not only should my day of the marathon be well-planned, but the day before and after should be too. As the mother of a young child (whose husband also participates in the marathon), I make sure to have childcare arranged for the whole marathon and at least five hours afterwards, so that we can sleep a little.
All our food is prepared in advance. I generally run, do yoga or other forms of exercise between writing poems.
But everyone does the marathon differently. For example my husband naps as much as possible between writing poems.
Expect the marathon to take a lot out of you. Many writers say it is much harder than they expected. Recovering after the marathon should take at least a day. Sometimes longer.
Ramona Elke, a participant in last year’s Poetry Marathon, wrote an excellent blog post that every new participant should read: http://lovedrovemetorebel.blogspot.com/2017/03/so-youre-thinking-of-participating-in.html
Last year over 500 people signed up. Less than half the people finished either the half or full marathon. This year we want a much higher success rate even if we have a much lower sign up rate. That is why we added this essay of warning.
Now, if you are wondering after reading all of this, why you would possibly do the marathon, I want to tell you three things.
So please sign up! But only if you are really prepared to commit.
Caitlin Jans
Marathon Co-Founder
Thank you for all the helpful feedback we received to the first updates post! Based on that feedback we have a few announcements to make.
There will be an anthology this year!
It will be similar to last years because we will do our best to include one poem by everyone who submits. The only major difference is that the submission period is shorter and starts sooner after the anthology is over. The submission period will go from August 10-15th.
Because the period is sooner you have to submit your information to get a certificate by August 9th.
Part of the reason everything is moved up in terms of time, is that I think it will work better and allow us to get the anthology out quicker.
The other reason is that I am co-organizing a poetry festival in late September in Bellingham Washington, so I have even more work on my already busy plate.
There will be two half marathon starting times!
Thanks to a lot of good feedback and encouragement there will be two half marathon starting points. One as always will start when the first marathon begins at 9AM ET. The second will be right after the first half marathon ends at 9 PM August 5th ET.
This is a terrible time to start if you actually live in the Eastern Time Zone but if you live outside of North America it might work better for you.
The Sign Up Period is Set
You can sign up to participate in the 2017 Poetry Marathon starting July 20th, and it ends July 25th.
There will be a lot more emails warning people about how intense the marathon is (because it is).