Repetition is one of the pillars of poetry. Sometimes the repetition is of words and phrases (as in sestinas, ghazals, or villanelles), sometimes it’s a repetition of sound (rhyme, alliteration, assonance), sometimes the rhythm of the words (which we most clearly see in formal meters like iambic pentameter). All these types of repetition are used [...]

I suppose I should start by apologizing for the cliché, but your prompt this week is to repeat yourself poetically. Repetition is one of the most important concepts in poetry. Songwriters understand this with their catchy choruses and repetition is very common in verse forms. Villanelles, sestinas, rondeaux and pantoum are all built on repetition. [...]

At least half of those who responded to the current “read write poll” believe that “growing poetically” is the hardest part of being a poet. I am thrilled about that!
I am not happy that you’re struggling to grow poetically, but I am happy that you want it. It tells me that this community sees [...]

From now until midnight one week from today, comments on this post will be open, so you can leave a permalink to your blog post for this week’s contribution to poems related to the weather, or any other poem or poem-like writing you’d like to share this week.
Be sure to check back in the week [...]

Casting call- unique types wanted!
As poets we feel the need to write, but what do we write about? We surf the net looking for prompts, read newspapers, look at paintings or listen to music, but ultimately we end up writing about ourselves. How then can we turn our own lives into poems?
If your life is [...]

I grew up in Northern Maine where we claimed ownership of the phrase: “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.” We had two seasons: winter and Fourth of July. We consulted The Farmer’s Almanac and the width of stripes on caterpillars to know how much snow we’d have. We believed the number [...]

Here we are with Get Your Poem On #14.
From now until midnight one week from today, comments on this post will be open, so you can leave a permalink (one per comment, please!) to your blog post for this week’s contribution.
We hope you took the time to write something based on the “ode to the [...]

Last month marked my fourth year attending the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference, this year in New York City. And because it was in the Big Apple, it certainly was … well … ginormous! With a reported 7,500 people registered, I couldn’t help but think about the poets and writers who have [...]

‘Tis the season of the heart here in the US. Heart-shaped valentines. Candy hearts. Big red heart boxes of chocolate candy. But have no fear. We’re not into clichés around here. We’re celebrating, all right, but not just hearts. Hearts. Hands. Feet. Stomachs. Ribs.
This week, we’re writing odes: poems of celebration and praise. Our subject, [...]

If you Google “temperamental artist stereotype,” you find heavy representation of articles from the world of psychiatry. It’s not difficult to argue mental illness in many famous artists and writers: Van Gogh cut off his ear and Sylvia Plath put her head in the oven, for example.
There are dozens of these tragic stories about [...]