The Poetry Marathon

Hello poets

I am Selim from Nigeria this is my first time on poet marathon. I really care to rob with you all✍️

My brand name is Bayọwrite.

Nice meeting you poets

Hi Marathoners! I’m Ellen from Safety Harbor, Florida. I’m really excited and already a little tired thinking about my first Poetry Half-Marathon!! Can’t wait for it to begin!

I am Andy, a Toronto-based writer and lawyer, getting ready for my second PM. I completed the half last year and found the first few hours fun and invigorating. The last half of the half-marathon was a slog. But at the end of it I was pleased with what I had accomplished. Speed writing (getting something down, working hard under a time limit to revise it) is a worthwhile endeavor because it forces us to draw on the creative concentration we all need to refine our craft. Looking forward to jumping in with all of you. Good luck!

Looking forward to participating in my second marathon (and my first full marathon). I’m stocking up on caffeine and snacks, and looking forward to the pressure of working to a new deadline every hour of the marathon.

Best of luck to all of us!

Here is my bio:

Jackie Douglas BIO: Writing as Jenny Olson started her writing journey only recently, as a means to process years of abuse, sex work, and addiction.  It has become her passion and what feeds her soul with joy.  Her hope is that her words make people feel and think.  And that her voice becomes the voice of the women who have walked these paths.

By recent I mean I just started writing poetry in June! I have words that need to come out and my poems are not for everyone they touch the nerves in many who read them.  I have found out that going on age 67 I can still learn new things and start on new paths.  I’m a widow, mother to three, grammie to 5, and have 3 dogs and 2 parakeets.  Life is good and this half marathon is scary and exciting at the same time.  I  and writing now to be a voice for women like me who had their voices taken away or never had a voice, like those who voice whose silenced as a child.  Surviving many of the bad things that happen to women,  I hope others can see there is a future, no matter how old one is. 

I’m a poet and writer, and too often I have to fight for the time to do what’s important to me, to my identity, to my happiness. When I carve out time for the half marathon, I’m doing something that says my work is important. Marathoners, our work is important, the poems that fly and those that stumble. We learn when we stumble.

I’m looking forward to twelve hours of reading and writing poetry on September 2, 2023.

I’ve done it more than once and it’s exhausting, but super rewarding creativity-wise.

It’s getting closer and closer … and the excitement is building. Another 12-to-24 hours of a unique community-and-poetry-building experience. Positive reinforcement. Judgment free. Helpful comments. Optional prompts. A steady diet for a half/full day of words, words, words. What could be more delicious?

Thank you again and again to Caitlin and Jacob for imaging, creating, maintaining and expanding this world-wide event. Having assembled dozens of anthologies over the years – including formatting several for publication – I completely ‘get’ what is involved in that side of things. And while I would happily volunteer my time/experience to creating this one, I also want to emphasize that the marathon is about the experience, not the product. As Louise deSalvo writes in “Writing as a Way of Healing:” “It’s not what you write that is important; it is who you become as you write.” Yep! Process over product.

So enjoy every moment and good luck choosing great snacks!! You’ll thank yourself every hour.

Hello! I’m a writer in Maryland on the east coast of the US. This is my second year doing the poetry marathon. I did the full marathon last year, but will only be doing the half this year. Looking forward to writing with everyone!

Hello, everyone. I’ll be writing poems from southern California this year. Looking forward to it and creating with you.