The Poetry Marathon

Text Prompt

“Write a poem about someone or something you have lust for.” by Daryl Cole Curnow.

Image Prompt

Photo by Filipp Romanovski on Unsplash

Text Prompt

“Tell me an old story (like a folktale from your culture, a fairytale you heard when you were young or a story passed down in your family). You can give it your own twist as well.” Prompt submitted by Bhasha Dwivedi

Image Prompt

Contributed by Cindy Whitaker

Congratulations Half Marathoners! I am so happy that you have completed 12 poems in 12 hours! That is wonderful. Thank you for joining us in this madness.

In the past I have personally verified that everyone who applied for a certificate was eligible and then I would make a certificate. That is not possible this year and so we will be operating on the honor system.

If you completed the Poetry Half Marathon please consider the following certificate yours, to update with your name, to print if you choose to do so. If you need any help altering the certificate please email me at poets@thepoetrymarathon.com

Click on the link below, and save the PowerPoint file to your computer, add a text box. Type in your name, then save as a JPEG.

Congratulations again on your completion of The Half Marathon.

Click on the link below, and save the PowerPoint file to your computer, add a text box. Type in your name, then save as a JPEG.

Download the Powerpoint for editing.

(Note, for optimal formatting, you may want to add the fonts Nixie One, La Belle Aurore, and Cedarville Cursive to your computer.)

The visual example of what the certificate will look like is right below this text.

Also this year we will be putting together a 2022 Poetry Marathon Anthology.

Submissions will open July 6th and stay open till the 22nd.

Full anthology submissions details will be available on the 6th. All submissions must be written during the 2022 Poetry Marathon.

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 towards covering the cost of the marathon.

Want to know what the 2021 Poetry Marathon Anthology was like? Pick up your copy here.

Text Prompts

Write a poem about a time when something really bad happened…that later turned out to be a good thing. – a prompt by Harvey Schwartz

Image Prompts

Submitted by Catherine Dickson, a photo of her dog Lumpy.

Text Prompts

Write about gathering with others. The specifics are up to you.

Image Prompts

Contributed by Ofuma Agali who adds “This is a sitting room of an Art Centre in Ikot Ekpene, south of Nigeria. This place attracts writers and readers alike.”

Text Prompt

Write a poem about laughter without ever using the words, laugh, laughter, or giggle.

Image Prompt

Contributed by Deborah Dalton

Text Prompt

“Personify an animal. Switch its trait. Example: a disinterested lion, a polite gorilla, an aggressive giraffe…” – Contributed by John Dutton

Image Prompt

Photo by rajat sarki on Unsplash

Photo by Dylan Shaw on Unsplash

Text Prompt

Every year we have a new form prompt, and this year, it’s the Gigan, which is an invented form. There’s a detailed blog post about it here, and it includes an example Gigan, which always helps.

Gigans must be 16 lines in length with seven stanzas (each stanza is separated by a line break). It goes couplet (two lines), tercet (three lines), couplet, couplet, couplet, tercet, couplet.

The first line is also the eleventh line, line six is repeated as line 12 as well.

Optionally the closing couplet should put a twist on the poem, but that isn’t a requirement.

Image Prompt

Photo contributed by Ofuma Agali.

A Sort of Text Prompt

Look on your phone and find the 10th non selfie picture and use that as your prompt. – Prompt by Deborah Dalton

Image Prompt

Photo by Marc A. Sporys on Unsplash