The Poetry Marathon

Kim Smart coming at you – well, from Fairbanks, AK at the moment, but I generally am in Kansas, South Dakota, or Arizona helping family. I am a floating soul, living life, piecing together the essentials and being @nomad4God by helping others where I can. I have had several careers – registered nurse, attorney, author, public servant, teacher – and am currently working on my PhD in psychology. I have 2 beautiful children and 6 going on 11 grandchildren (4 marrying in and 1 due in September). This is my second 24-hour marathon and I look forward to focusing on this opportunity to co-create in the energy of my fellow participants. Best wishes to all!

Aloha 2022 Poetry Marathon Poets!

Wow! I have waited all year for this (I say this every year), but this year it seems the need to crawl into our writing space together is stronger than any other year. I am blessed and humbled to be thinking, writing, stumbling, conquering,  snacking, 20 minute napping, creating, and poeming with all of you. You are my muses, and I am so excited and grateful to be with you soon.

Last year, I wrote exclusively from the provided marathon prompts. I was nervous about my decision, but quickly found they were actually more structuring and liberating than I had assumed. I am looking forward to writing from them again this year as well. With all that is happening in the world, there is a great peace in the lengthy meditative space that is our poetry marathon. Bringing the prompts into my process helps direct the flow for me, and hone my thoughts. I highly recommend the prompts!

So, here’s my countdown…

Write 1 one hour poem each day this week until the marathon using a randomly generated dictionary word.

Thursday: Buy my favorite easy to grab marathon snacks… Trail mix, mini Mnm’s, dark chocolate bars, grapes, apples, frozen blueberries, limes, LaCroix soda waters, good chewy ice, Starbuck’s Nitro Black cans… crackers. Make chicken salad, egg salad, and tuna salad for the crackers.

Set up 3 writing stations… one at the dining room table… one on the front lanai… one at my bedroom window, all of which I will abandon for 24 hours cross-legged on my comfy bed, or lying on the floor. It’s the process though, right?

Friday night, set out all snacky snacks, and make my bed with my favorite linens. Set my alarm for 2:15am (We start at 3am here in Hawai’i). Go to bed at 7. Not fall asleep until 10… too excited!

Saturday 2:15am. Wake. Make awesome coffee. Shower. Put on super soft leggings and tankie. Remind myself that it’s just writing,  and if I write 24 senrua or haiku, that’s a good marathon. Do my best. Support others. Have fun!

So, that’s a little bit about me. I hope to meet many of you over the coming week, and see you in there… 9 days to go!!!

Me ke aloha nui loa 🌺

Elizabeth

Hello everyone,

I signed up for the full poetry marathon in 2019 as a curious poet trying to see what I could make of it.

Writing a poem every hour was not just an interesting thought, I also wondered how one could come up with ideas either from a blank slate or from the prompts being released every hour.

Before now I had never been a fan of prompts, but viola, it held a magic I find difficult to explain. I found myself enjoying them and creating good content (at least in my opinion,😃😃).

Though I wasn’t able to complete the marathon then as I was ill, I am already looking forward to the 2022 poetry marathon to give it all I can.

Hi Everyone,

It feels good to see you here again this year. This will be my third year with this. In 2020, I signed up for the Full Poetry Marathon, but ended up completing Half. In 2021, I signed up for and completed the Full Poetry Marathon. This year, I am up for the Full. I am also excited to be part of the anthology editors for this year.

Like I have often said, I experienced what you might call poetry drought prior to the 2020 Poetry Marathon. I had written poems actively from my late teenage years into my late 20s and then gradually, I began to experience a decline of the muse as work and family began to take its toll on my time. To get out of this, I struggled to have my first collection (which was pretty much all that I had for poetry) published. That done, in 2017, I still found it hard to create poetry. Things went on this way until I found Poetry Marathon in the thick of the 2020 pandemic lockdown, and I signed up.

I went into the 2020 Poetry Marathon with some fright, as I wondered if I would find anything thing to write, for which poetry ought to happen. But then, as it started, I did. I found ideas. I wrote stuff down. And some of them have turned into fine poems today. But here’s the good news! I found my poetry inspiration again. And since 2020, I have been able to create ideas for up to four collection of poems ( some in progress, some to be written in due time).

The Poetry Marathon is a fantastic idea. It is even more amazing to see that it has been kept up since its commencement, for which optimal credit must go to Caitlin and Jacob. The community spirit is awesome. Knowing that you have people who can read your poems from all continents of the world is awesome.

I come into this 2022 edition of this even with great joy. It will be a great pleasure to meet all of you again – returnees and new participants. I wish you all the best of experience as you engage with the 2022 Poetry Marathon. Please feel free to look at my profile here if you like to know a bit more about me.

Here’s to a happy writing!

Ofuma

My back story in writing begins at age 10, grade four, when I got an E for excellent on a poem called, The Fog. I no longer have a copy of it, but it wasn’t All That! hehe I remember my mom being exceptionally proud of me and I do remember feeling quite pleased. At the time, my aspiration was to be a journalist and travel the globe. I wrote for fun and always looked forward to composition.

We will fast forward many, many, many years to 2010 when, out of desperation (details will not be disclosed), I started my own writing company, falling back on what I knew best, aside from management and interior design. Since then, I’ve published a children’s book of poetry and haiku, written for a magazine, an ePub called Florida Designer Homes, produced thousands of pieces of collateral content, and produced a number of manuscripts for children’s lit and adult. I’m currently working on the formatting and layout of my second book to be published, entitled, The Last Leaf. This simple, short story addresses the grief a child experiences upon the loss of loved ones, as well as fear of one’s own mortality. It’s beautifully illustrated and I’m extremely excited and looking forward to launching it.

I have no idea how difficult this marathon will be and hope I don’t wimp out!!!

Hi everyone!

This is my first time participating and I am excited and really nervous!  I usually write in prose but I would love to improve in the area of poetry, and my poetry definitely has room for improvement.  I thought this would be a great way to challenge myself and really push myself to practice my craft.  Whether I write well, badly, something amazing (doubtful) or just something ok, I still think this is a great way to challenge myself in an area in which I’m weak.  I’m going to prepare myself by studying up on the different types of poems, reading and re-reading all different types of poetry, writing short poems to practice writing poems, studying up on the variety of literary devices and making sure to eat well and get a good night’s sleep the two or three nights before the the marathon begins.  I am really looking forward to this!

OMG – but the advice to log in early is *definitely* good.

Having determined my (exceptionally!) elderly computer had become suddenly non-responsive I (rather obviously) needed to arrange an alternative

…and (some time later) here I am – finally!

I am definitely looking forward to doing the half marathon with you all.

Hopefully I will manage my time reasonably well and finish.

Cheers

Merry.

Hi guys!  My name is Ramona Jones and this will be my 2nd marathon. I am excited and I cannot wait to write some amazing poems.  I am on my summer vacation and it started off kind of rough.  I am just getting over the flu (it was nasty). I am not 100% yet, but I will be next weekend.  I look forward to reading some your amazing poetry.

Hello..I am juvairiya! I am an unpublished author.Howdy Nasiha helped me to publish my poem with other authors as an anthologies. Visit howdy nasiha page to get published if not yet…

Hello!I am nasiha..I have participated the poetry marathon contest last year too.I am again back to the contest.I have many new poems with new contents.See you in the contest..