The Poetry Marathon

Submissions for the 2016 Poetry Marathon Anthology opened this morning, the 3rd of September and will stay open till the 12th of September. No submissions will be accepted after that point.

All submissions must include two poems, no more, no less. All submissions must be made via our email address (poets@thepoetrymarathon.com). The subject line of all emails must be Poetry Submission. Poems must be included in the body of the email.

All poems submitted must be written during the 2016 Poetry marathon. All poems should be completely edited and contain no major grammatical errors. You must indicate which hour each poem was written in. Only poets who completed the whole or half marathon will be eligible to submit. If you signed up for the whole marathon and only completed the half, submit as a half marathoner.

There is no guarantee that by submitting to the anthology your poem will be selected.

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 back into the marathon.

Want to know what the 2014 Poetry Marathon Anthology was like? Pick up your copy here.

You did it! Congratulations! I am very impressed! You wrote 24 poems in 24 hours. This is an achievement that few poets ever accomplish. Although if you are a returning marathoner, some of you might be accomplishing it for the second or third time!

Now you should probably go get some sleep.

After every marathon I have participated in I, have been filled with exhaustion but also a tremendous sense of achievement. I hope you have that too.

If you completed the marathon please send us an email in the next couple of days to poets@thepoetrymarathon.com with your full name, the details about what event you participated in (full or half marathon), a link to your marathon blog, and an email address in the body of the email. 

You will not receive a digital certificate if you do not follow those instructions and email poets@thepoetrymarathon.com by September second.

You should receive your digital certificate within two weeks of emailing us.

Also remember that this year we will be putting together a 2016 Poetry Marathon Anthology.

Submissions will open September 3rd and stay open till the 12th.

All submissions must include two poems, no more, no less. All submissions must be made via our email address (poets@thepoetrymarathon.com). The subject line of all emails must be Poetry Submission. Poems must be included in the body of the email.

All poems submitted must be written during the 2016 Poetry marathon. All poems should be completely edited and contain no major grammatical errors. 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 back into the marathon.

Want to know what the 2014 Poetry Marathon Anthology was like? Pick up your copy here.

Congratulations – you are almost there.

The last prompt is to write a poem about doing something that others are not doing, such as being awake while those around you are asleep.

We are almost there! Hang on. Do what you need to do to get through these next two hours.

The prompt this hour is to write a poem about a place. It should be a place you know very well because you have been there a lot, or imagined it a great deal. It should be a smaller place. Think of a house, a room, or a park, not an entire city or county.

The poem should describe the place as it relates to people, not just you, but the other people who are there regularly.  If what you are describing is one room in your apartment, say the kitchen, you would know most of the people who frequent it, and you can be more specific. But if what you are describing is a park, generalities are easier, although you can imagine specifics if that helps.

Write a poem to go with one of the following five titles.

Möbius Strip

The Night is For Sleeping

Blue Clouds

Station

At the Diner

Write a poem as if it is a letter to someone. Start with the word Dear and go from there. This poem letter could be to yourself. It could be to someone you know. It could be to a complete stranger.

Write an ekphrastic poem to go with this image. An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.

This painting is called Coalition and it is by Kevin Peterson.

Write a poem that contains one or more of the following common phrases but uses them in a different context than they are usually used. Ideally you would use more than one of the phrases, or repeatedly use the same phrase.

“Welcome home”

“Thank you”

“Excuse me”

“Have a nice day”

“Pardon me”

“How are you?”

Write a prose poem about an animal. Any animal.

Then only after you have finished the last sentence, add line and stanza breaks.

Write a poem about the first person who broke your heart.  The person who broke your heart could be obvious – it could be your first boyfriend or girlfriend, or it could be surprising. It could be a friend, a parent, a child.