The Poetry Marathon

How fantastic to be part of such an exciting poetry moment – and so cool that so many people are interested in taking part in this. I’m definitely excited. I signed up for a full marathon, but depending on how it goes I may switch to a half marathon. I’d really love to churn out 24 full poems, though, so we’ll see.

My name is Mary and I live in a small town in Northwest Missouri, by the grand Missouri River. I teach English at Missouri Western State University, and I edit Stone Highway Review. I’m also an editor with Sundress Publications. I have an MFA from the University of Kansas and have been writing and publishing for years now. This town lacks a writing community and since moving back to this place, I’ve found it quite lonely as a writer in the area. This is one reason I’ve decided to join the marathon – to get that feeling of community that I find so inspiring. I think that reading other people’s new work somehow fuels my own creativity.

I’m currently going through a divorce. It’s been a bad year for writing because of some really emotional inconsistency. I allowed myself to take far too long off this summer and have realized that “keeping busy” is not quite as fun as I’d hoped. I miss writing. I miss how it makes me feel during and after. Writing is a good friend and it sucks that I abandoned that friend for a couple of months. This marathon, hopefully, will help me make it up to that friend, and to myself. My goal is to write NO DIVORCE POEMS, though I may end up writing some accidentally. I am working on a project that involves semi-found poetry – stealing some stuff from the profiles of men on dating websites. My goal is to get quite a few solid pieces for this project. Before starting, I’m hoping to have some titles ready to go so that I can just write from those titles, and my plan is to keep it themed, and to think in sections (how many poems can go under “Inbox” for example and under “Self-Summary” for example). And so! Hoping this will help me get outside of my head and be thinking of what else poetry can do besides narrate my own emotional state of mind.

Nice to meet you all!

As the time nears, I am getting ready for an emotion filled day! I set my alarms, and I am busy collecting writing prompts! This is an awesome idea and I’m excited to be a part of it! Another idea, I will be taking a small video each hour just documenting how I’m feeling with each new hour! Cant wait to read everyone’s work!

Hello fellow marathoners? Is that even a word? Hmmm. My name is Nicole and joining this marathon is probably quite silly for me to do. Only because I havent written a poem since middle school. But I am hoping that it will help me start writing again in general.  Ok so a little bit about me… I live in a small country town on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I love it but I would love to travel and maybe live in a big city someday…if I can talk my fiancee into it. He is strictly a “down home” kind of man. I love writing and hope to one day go back to one of the five or so I have half started on my laptop and finish. When I saw the date that this marathon was scheduled I thought it was 9pm saturday the 23rd to 9pm the 24th. The 24th is my mothers birthday. She past away three years ago. So I thought that maybe it had come time for me to start putting into words how im feeling about her and the loss of her. It seemed like a fortunate coincidence.   Unfortunatly i misread the start time, but oh well. So my plan is to do just that. Otherwise I have no hard and fast plan for the day, hopefully make it through doing this and working Saturday night. Thats my biggest hurtle.  We shall see. Thanks to everyone for being so nice and welcoming. I cant wait to read what everyone comes up with. 🙂

Hello everyone!

I’m soo excited about this marathon (I’m doing the full, which feels a bit insane; in a good way tho), and will spend some time next week preparing for this fun challenge by looking up good, inspiring music to listen to while writing. My plan is to have loads of tea and coffee avilable and create a sort of cosy blanket fort where I’ll be able to indulge in this creative endeavor.

I have a feeling some of the poems will turn out like utter and total crap, but hopefully I’ll get some good things going, and if nothing else, it will most certainly be a fun experience.

Good luck to you all ^-^

Hey,

I’m looking forward to flexing my poetry muscles.

I’m an English teacher in Worcestershire, England. I have recently completed a first draft of my first novel and am currently in the editing phase- which is taking me considerably longer than it did to write it. That said, I’ve taken on a few writing challenges this year in order to get the novel finished, including writing from a shepherd’s hut, and from a Romany caravan- in complete isolation.

The enjoyment of writing, for me, is in being able to block out the rest of the world and lose oneself in the world you create. I will be using meditation to help me do this for the marathon.

Poetry is not my strong point, however, and usually when I write poetry, I spend far too long on it and never feel happy with the result; that is why I’m putting myself through this!

Will look forward to reading some of your poems.

Hello everyone and greetings from Northern Ireland! My name is Anne and I’ve decided to do the full marathon. From the first, the very title of this project intrigued me, and I can’t wait to get started! I’ve been adrift from my own creative soul recently (work and more work got in the way) so now I’m diving straight into the deep end!

Im not sure what to expect, to be honest: I want this to challenge me and inspire me – and I already feel it will do just that. It’s a lovely feeling to be part of this group…all waiting to begin! I’m on GMT (plus daylight savings) so it’ll be an early start for me! xx

I am looking forward to this challenge….  I am part of the Maui Live Poets Society and need some new material. This will be great to push my work even further.

Hey,my name is Hardika.

Well you already know my name ,
now something about my aim
I want to be a very good writer,
but often end up in an amateur fighter,
my writings are sometime good or bad
and I know I will learn like that
one should never stop fighting
as the key to learn is keep on writing..

Hello everyone..I am not good enough at writing poetry but still whenever I feel something that i am not able to convey or don’t want to share in simple words.. I write, without thinking about the outcome as I write them for my soul and this marathon is actually my attempt to explore myself through the deepest forms of writing and learning while doing so is just a bonus.

Hi,

The subject used to be the tag-line for an older, now defunct,  blog on rediff.com. I would like to start writing again and am looking for an excuse to do that.

The time difference will be something to watch. Also I am in the Middle East and we traditionally work on Sundays.

Should be fun 🙂

Cheers!

JW