The Poetry Marathon

I participated in the poetry Half-Marathon in 2015. It was my first marathon of any kind, and I had a lot of fun staying up all night. I loved the eeriness of the night, the dead silence after a heavy downpour, the crunch of my all-night snacks, and the way my mind worked its magic into the wee hours. It was a surreal experience! Some of the poems I wrote that night went on to get published in online literary journals, and that was the icing on my marathon cake. I am all set for participating again this year, and am eagerly looking forward to some interesting prompts and scribbles (read first drafts).

You can read more of here writing at https://www.facebook.com/Shloka-Shankar-a-rasikas-musings-745965042120215/

I participated in The Poetry Marathon in 2015, shortly after finishing my Creative and Professional Writing degree. I could already feel withdrawal symptoms from the intensity of my course and the marathon was a perfect quick fix.

There is something liberating about writing to a specific deadline, it forces you to stop worrying about perfection of every word and just get on with it. And sometimes that’s exactly what’s needed to make the magic happen. The Poetry Marathon is an extremely fast paced version of it, as the deadlines are hourly. But at the same time there’s no fear of missing the deadline, as nothing bad will happen if you do. It gives all the positive aspects of that “last minute” inspiration and none of the negativity that usually comes with it.

I can’t say I wrote 24 brilliant poems during the marathon. I hated some of them with a passion. But there were 5 that I loved just as much. And those 5 I still do. Some others I might get back to and dedicate more time into editing. And even among the hated ones, some were a really fun challenge that I don’t regret taking on.

In addition to all that, I know what I’ll miss most from my studies is receiving meaningful and constructive commentary on my creative work. I had plenty of in-depth feedback on my poems during the marathon, and I made some friends that I can still rely on to honestly and constructively comment on my work. And that alone is priceless.

You can read more of her writing at https://ravenfiction.wordpress.com/

I’ve done two half-marathons. Like many folks, an entire 24-hour period hasn’t been feasible with work commitments. The half-marathon is the perfect compromise. Each year’s 12 hours has pushed me to produce new work, in response both to the prompts and the process. Something about writing a poem an hour, in the company of other crazy writers from around the world, feeds creativity. Seeing how others interpret the prompts, reading the comments on my work… Both are useful as well as encouraging. Writers range in experience, but all are strong readers, which is what most of us writers want & need. I’ll be back for a third year, anticipating more work I couldn’t conceive of otherwise.

You can visit Britton online at http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/beginnersheart/

Jacob and myself are pretty vocal about how much we love The Poetry Marathon, but that is not surprising, given that we are the founders.  This year we have decided to do something new. We have asked past marathoners to email us a short piece about what their experience with The Poetry Marathon was like. These pieces are all going to be published on the website and tagged as Testimonials, so that writers who are considering becoming poetry marathoners can read them and get a better feel for what The Poetry Marathon is all about.

So if you participated in the past and want to contribute a testimonial send us an email at poets@thepoetrymarathon. Otherwise keep your eyes peeled. The first testimonial will be posted tomorrow.

Sign up this year will go from the 11th of July till the 19th of July.

In the next few weeks we will start an email list so if you want updates and reminders directly in your inbox make sure to sign up then.

The Poetry Marathon continues to grow every year.  Every year the diversity of the participants increase. In 2015 individuals living on 6 different continents participated. There were several mother daughter teams. The oldest poet was in their 80s, the youngest was in their teens. Experienced poets who had published books participated as did several people who had never really written poetry before.

During the marathon friendships and communities are formed that last much longer than the marathon itself.

However, what continues to surprise and impress me the most about the Marathon is the quality of work that it produces. By that I don’t mean edited and polished work. (One person dropped out this year because they hated looking at others typo riddled poems.) I mean the quality of the raw material, the poems before polishing.

This year the basics of the marathon will stay the same.

The Marathon will run from 9 am ET on August 13th till 9 am ET on August 14th. The half marathon will run from 9 am ET till 9 pm on August 13th. Each poet must write and publish on the blog one poem per hour.

We will have one central Facebook group where poets can meet and encourage each other, before, after, and during the event.

All of the poems will still have to be posted on the central website (although you can remove them as soon as the marathon is over).

Everyone has to register before the marathon in order to participate in the marathon.

Everyone who completes the half or whole marathon will receive a digital certificate to mark their participation.

This is still largely a two person operation. Jacob Jans handles most of the technical aspects of the Marathon and Caitlin Jans handles almost everything else. Keep this in mind when we make mistakes or cannot manage to do everything that we want to do. This is not a large non-profit, this is two poets (with a baby, a dog, and jobs) who try their best.

There will still be a prompt published every hour.

However there may be some changes.

We tried making groups on the website itself last year. Sometimes this was helpful, but mostly it was not. We are trying to find a better way to make that work, so if you have any ideas please tell us.

We are considering doing an anthology again. However, this is largely contingent on how many participants are involved. The anthology will be different from the 2014 anthology. It will most likely not include the work of everyone that submits and we would not be able to offer complimentary physical copies to all the contributors (however they would probably be available at cost and digital copies would be available for free). If you want another anthology to happen, even with these conditions in place, please encourage us in that direction.

We may or may not have a cap on the number of participants.

We may be accepting prompt submissions.

If you can think of any other changes we should or could make, please email us at poets@thepoetrymarathon.com

More updates will be coming soon. Please email any questions or ideas to poets@thepoetrymarathon.com

You did it! Congratulations! I am very much impressed! You wrote 24 poems in 24 hours. This is an achievement that few poets ever accomplish. 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 and email address in the body of the email. In the next few weeks you should receive your digital certificate.

I imagine that a lot of poets right now are ready to sleep. So that is the theme of the final prompt. Write a poem about sleep. What it is like to sleep, what it is like to dream, what you are dreaming about. But don’t fall asleep until you press Publish!

‘The worst enemy to creativity is self–doubt.’ – Sylvia Plath

I love this quote. Doubt is something almost all writers face. However it is rarely something we write about. Your prompt is to write about a poem about doubt. It could be self doubt, it could be doubt in terms of creative writing, or it could be about doubt in general.