Regardless of the weather or place in the world, by the end of a long winter or start of [...]]]> by Dave Jarecki

Growing up in Pennsylvania, I remember mid-March as being a battle between cabin and spring fevers. Some years, the season’s last blizzard was coming; others, kids gathered at outdoor basketball hoops for two-on-two, double-elimination tournaments.

Regardless of the weather or place in the world, by the end of a long winter or start of a sudden spring, the sexually restless among us are done being cooped up. In many cases, two or more will go off to conjugate. A percentage of such excursions predictably leads to the creation of children. This explains why so many of my friends — not to mention their own kids — were born in December.

This act of pairing up, bedding down and making a third human is as bizarre and chance-driven as anything else that happens during our lives. Still, not too many people sit around and ponder the haphazard nature of getting it on.

Consider the fact that, before people can meet people, other people need to meet people just to create the people who will one day meet, fall down and sometimes make other people who will one day meet people. Follow the trail into the future and the line never ends. Head in reverse, you eventually arrive at the first meeting of seed and soil.

Who or what but a poet can sit around and give thought to this topic, let alone write about it?

And with that, my lovers and friends, I beseech you. Go forth with this notion. Or go back. Multiply with your words.

Dave Jarecki writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction from his home in Portland, Ore. Read and listen to his work, as well as the work of guest writers, at DaveJarecki.com.

Did you find you favored other people’s words? Did some give you fits? (And if you wrote using some other inspiration, that’s OK, too. You never have to write [...]]]> by Deb Scott

It’s Thursday, and time to post links to the poems you wrote for us this week (or leave us your entire poem in the comments).

Did you find you favored other people’s words? Did some give you fits? (And if you wrote using some other inspiration, that’s OK, too. You never have to write to the prompt. We are not like that around here.) Whatever you did, or didn’t do, share it. And come back tomorrow for the next great prompt.

Please read this page to find out how the Get Your Poem On and Read Write Prompt posts work.

Remember that work linked from this post is shared in precisely that spirit: sharing, as opposed to critiquing.

If you haven’t done so already, please read all the pages under About in the navigation bar.

If you participate in a Read Write Prompt, we ask that you link back here in your posts, either with a link to Read Write Poem or by using the Read Write Poem badge in your post. Sidebar links are great but it helps others find the site when you link in every post you contribute to the project. It’s not a lot to ask in acknowledgment of the work everyone is doing in providing prompts for members to use.

Deb Scott is a community director for Read Write Poem and co-manages our Virtual Book Tour. She admits to loving Wordles if for no other reason than to admire all the offerings. Deb blogs at Stoney Moss.

So says David Alpaugh (along with a lot of other thoughtful things) in “The New Math of Poetry,” published last month in [...]]]> “The new math of poetry is driven not by reader demand for great or even good poetry but by the demand of myriads of aspiring poets to experience the thrill of ‘publication.’ “

So says David Alpaugh (along with a lot of other thoughtful things) in “The New Math of Poetry,” published last month in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Read the article and let us talk. What say you?

Every morning these past two months I have rolled out of bed, turned off the alarm and trudged downstairs to my office to set a new alarm. I sit in a beanbag chair and write, by hand, in a journal for 15 minutes. Then I head off to the shower to get ready [...]]]> by Ren Powell

Every morning these past two months I have rolled out of bed, turned off the alarm and trudged downstairs to my office to set a new alarm. I sit in a beanbag chair and write, by hand, in a journal for 15 minutes. Then I head off to the shower to get ready for my day job. It isn’t that I get anything done in those 15 minutes. It is the principle of ritual.

It’s an idea I got from the choreographer Twyla Tharp’s book, The Creative Habit. Tharp explains that her ritual isn’t the morning workout, it is the process of getting up and into the taxi that takes her to the gym. She explains that she actually enjoys the workout, but without the ritual she wouldn’t be certain to get to that point each day: other things get in the way too easily.

I wish I could say that every morning when the alarm goes off at 6, I have hopped joyfully out of bed, looking forward to writing my page of non sequiturs. Some Mondays I have crawled slowly on all fours to the office and cursed a blue streak when there was no ink in any of the pens (all of which I tossed back into the drawer, of course – carving dry and desperate spirals in the margins of my journal with empty pens has become a ritual in itself). But no matter how late I actually get started, I have always prioritized the 15 minute writing alarm. It means there have been days I got to work with damp hair and no make-up. And that is fine. I’ve found that, vain as I am, I am honestly a person who values her identity as a writer — as defined and evidenced by the actual activity of writing — more than her identity as an attractive and tidy person. More than the dignity of matching socks. More than a packed lunch.

Believe me, the 15 minutes isn’t the enjoyable workout. It is the taxi ride during which I establish for myself the reality of my days.

I admire people that manage to get up an hour early to make time for their writing. I may someday choose to try that. At the moment, though, this ritual of 15 minutes is about becoming conscious of how I prioritize my time: what happens when I try to write and the other things in my life that prevent me from writing. Or that I have thought prevented me from writing.

This morning, for example, my pen stopped on the page because I heard the song birds for the first time this spring. They were “twittering at 6:06 outside my window” and I couldn’t think of a thing to write after that statement. I just listened. For a moment it seemed the birds had returned and the Muse had taken off. Then the garbage truck arrived and idled and strained and coughed and left. These sounds are some of those other things that get in the way of my writing.

This morning’s production on the page looked more meagre than usual and I trudged downstairs to the shower and then off to work. To my students: more “others” that take up my time and days and thoughts and keep me from writing.

This afternoon my time will be filled with grant-writing, something other than the kind of writing I want to do. Then I will have to tidy the house, pay bills, make dinner, prepare lesson plans, quiz the kids on their homework … I have a whole list of other things to do before I can settle down in front of my computer to work on my own poetry.

Who am I kidding?

Do I sit down every single day to write poetry? No. I watch TV. I read magazines. I surf the web. I write in seasons. Like the songbirds that showed up this morning, the Muse will arrive and slip under my skin again, as long as I leave the door open.

I have found that the 15 minutes I spend each morning writing, even when it is nothing more than “can’t stop thinking about the bills, can’t stop thinking about the bills” in increasingly larger script, is like looking out the door each day. Maybe the Muse will come today. Meanwhile all these other things, things that “get in the way” of my writing fall into lines — on the page.

I have forgiven myself for not having the discipline to sit in my office from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and write. Or for not getting up at 5 a.m instead of 6. The 15 minute ritual has had the effect of making me mindful. I have discovered that the right thing for me to do is not to cut out the “other” things, but to realize the integrity of my life as a poet. It is all this other stuff that I will draw from when the Muse finally shows up and gives me the opportunity for a really good workout.

Who said success is when preparation meets opportunity? Isn’t that also a good definition of poetry?

How do you deal with the other things that get in the way of poetry?

(I actually wrote this post before reading Robert Peake’s column. It may as well have been in dialogue. Seems we might have have a mutual muse.)

Ren (Katherine) Powell is native Californian living on the west coast of Norway. Ren has published three collections of poetry and 11 books of translations. She is a graduate adviser with Prescott College’s brief residency MA program and is pursuing a doctorate in creative writing at Lancaster University in England. Learn more at her website.

The Book of Men and Women, by David Biespiel

David Biespiel is widely recognized as one of the leading poets of his generation, a liberal commentator on national politics, and also an expert in teaching writing. He has taught at every [...]]]> by David Jarecki

The Book of Men and Women, by David Biespiel

“That’s what’s interesting to me. The state of being both lost and found.”

David Biespiel is widely recognized as one of the leading poets of his generation, a liberal commentator on national politics, and also an expert in teaching writing. He has taught at every level of education, from a one-room schoolhouse to large university campuses, and has lectured and spoken to audiences throughout the United States. In 1999, looking to create an independent writing studio, Biespiel founded the Attic in Portland, Oregon’s historic Hawthorne district.

His publications include Shattering Air, Pilgrims & Beggars, Wild Civility, and most recently, The Book of Men and Women, which was among the Poetry Foundation’s selections of top poetry of 2009. In addition, he has been honored with a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, a Lannan Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature.

In The Book of Men and Women, Biespiel addresses the times in which we live with a perspective that shifts from global to introspective with ease. Always eager and willing to find new layers of metaphor, Biespiel goes to one of our oldest know source documents — The Book of Genesis — to help get the collection started. When we met in January to discuss the book, one of the first things we talked about was what it’s like to “cover” Genesis, and whether or not it benefits the reader to brush up on the ancient script.

I recently heard you mention that the Bible, specifically the Old Testament, informed some of poems in the book. As it relates to your opening poem, “Genesis 12,” do you think someone needs to be knowledgeable of this particular chapter to appreciate the piece?

I wrote it under the assumption that a reader would google Genesis: 12.

Essentially I was trying to write my own version and interpretive dramatization of that particular chapter of the Bible. The word I use is covering. I cover Genesis: 12 like the band on the corner covers “House of the Rising Sun.”

The Biblical Genesis: 12 is the point where Abraham is leaving his homeland and headed to Canaan. That’s the transition. If he doesn’t leave Ur, or wherever he was from, and go to Canaan, a lot of things don’t happen. Essentially, Abraham is a fanatic; his trek is related to his fanaticism.

My view of fanatics is that they’re so far around the bend in their fanaticism, that they come right around to the edge of doubt. If you could flip them, you could do so easily, and they wouldn’t know what they’re doing. People who come out of fanaticism often say things like, “Wow, it was like a bad dream.” Or an addiction.

I wanted to tell my version of the story from this awareness. The poem ends with the sentence, “I’m certain I’ve lost my mind.” Of course that’s what the fanatic has done: he’s lost his old mind and taken on a new one.

In the end, the poem is trying to look at Abraham as a prophet who’s unsure. The whole experience isn’t that pleasurable for him.

What the poem doesn’t address is the larger question that relates to the transitional moment in Biblical history, regardless of whether it’s factual. Instead it addresses the emotional state. That’s what’s interesting to me. The state of being both lost and found. And that’s not a Jewish tradition, per se. It’s more of an Evangelical tradition I suppose.

Abraham knows what he’s doing, but he also knows that by doing it, he’s wandering. It initiates this type of wandering motif throughout the entire collection.

You can find out more about The Book of Men and Women, Biespiel’s sixth book, at the University of Washington Press. For more about David Biespiel and his work, visit his blog.

Dave Jarecki writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction from his home in Portland, Ore. Read and listen to his work, as well as the work of guest writers, at DaveJarecki.com.

Just a snippet from Wanda McCollar’s response to Molly Gaudry’s electronic chapbook, “Anatomy for the Artist.” [...]]]> “I was physically drained by this poem.  I understood it on my terms.  If a poet’s innovative craftsmanship with form, word, sound, imagery, metaphor, can show me my own bones, then I want to read more of that poet’s work.”

Just a snippet from Wanda McCollar’s response to Molly Gaudry’s electronic chapbook, “Anatomy for the Artist.” Look for the entire post on Synecdochic Stuff and find the rest of our tour, below.

The first stop was Donna Vorreyer at her blog. Next up was Catherine Fitchett at Poetry Chook, Lawrence Gladeview at Righteous Rightings and Ren Powell at More Babel.

You can find complete information about this chapbook and tour here, including a link to where to find it and read it for yourself, online.

Next month’s tour will start mid-April. Don’t miss it!

I most often think of Shakespeare [...]]]> by Carolee Sherwood

What has five feet and lots of rhythm? Iambic pentameter, of course! Iambic is a particular unit of rhythm (called feet) — two syllables, an unstressed one followed by a stressed one, like this: da-DUM! Pentameter tells us how many of them are on each line — five.

I most often think of Shakespeare when I consider iambic pentameter. “What light through yonder window breaks?” (Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 2). “Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince; / And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest (Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2).

Rhythm is critical to a poem. Whether it’s structured or not, rhythm can make a poem more — or less — readable. It takes training for our voices to use rhythm and avoid the “sing-song” trap. Lion cubs, puppies and other critters train to hunt through play: rough-housing their litter mates. We’re going to do the same thing: rough-house with our litter mates.

For this installment of “Games Poets Play” we’re going to have a conversation, in iambic pentameter, in the comments section of this post. For example, someone may say, “Let’s see if we can talk in metered rhyme!” And then someone else may say, “That is the worst idea I’ve ever heard!” (Yeah, there’s a slight extra syllable in this one, but it still “sounds” right.)

You can say anything you want, as long as it’s in iambic pentameter and as long as it moves the conversation along (and is not too rough — remember we are playing). Please don’t put anything in the comments that’s not part of the actual discussion taking place in iambic pentameter because that may be confusing.

Who wants to go first?

Carolee Sherwood is a poet and artist who lives in Upstate New York. She is co-editor of Ouroboros Review, mother of three boys and a veteran Read Write Poem columnist. You can find her rambling about the creative life at Carolee Sherwood and drafting poems at I Am Maureen.

To write to this prompt, pick as many (or few) of these words as you want and write a poem using them. (And if these words don’t suit you, pick your own. Just write a poem, or two.)

Enjoy the week’s words, [...]]]> by Deb Scott

This week uses words offered by Barbara, Nicole, Marian V., Mark S. and Rallentanda

To write to this prompt, pick as many (or few) of these words as you want and write a poem using them. (And if these words don’t suit you, pick your own. Just write a poem, or two.)

Enjoy the week’s words, no matter which ones you use.

Deb Scott is a community director for Read Write Poem. She also co-manages the Read Write Poem Virtual Book Tour. In her other life she loves to hunt for treasure, and tends to leave holes in her backyard, which she disguises as weeding. She blogs at Stoney Moss.

And, in case you missed it, the first stop was Donna Vorreyer’s, at her blog. Next up was Catherine Fitchett at Poetry Chook and then Lawrence Gladeview at Righteous Rightings.

You can [...]]]> Ren Powell has just posted her take on Molly Gaudry’s electronic chapbook, “Anatomy for the Artist.” Find the post at More Babel.

And, in case you missed it, the first stop was Donna Vorreyer’s, at her blog. Next up was Catherine Fitchett at Poetry Chook and then Lawrence Gladeview at Righteous Rightings.

You can find information about this chapbook and tour here, including a link to where to find it and read it for yourself, online.

Along with your links (or your poem), you might want to say a little something about how the process worked for you this [...]]]> by the Read Write Poem Staff

Did Zachary Schomburg’s amazing prompt help you create something completely new this week? Was it inspiring, frightening, freeing or complicating? All of the above? None of the above?

Along with your links (or your poem), you might want to say a little something about how the process worked for you this week.

Please read this page to find out how the Get Your Poem On and Read Write Prompt posts work.

Remember that work linked from this post is shared in precisely that spirit: sharing, as opposed to critiquing.

If you haven’t done so already, please read all the pages under About in the navigation bar.

If you participate in a Read Write Prompt, we ask that you link back here in your posts, either with a link to Read Write Poem or by using the Read Write Poem badge in your post. Sidebar links are great but it helps others find the site when you link in every post you contribute to the project. It’s not a lot to ask in acknowledgment of the work everyone is doing in providing prompts for members to use.

In case you missed it, the first stop was Donna Vorreyer’s, at her blog. Next was Catherine Fitchett at Poetry Chook.

You can find information about the chapbook and tour here, including a link [...]]]> Lawrence Gladeview has posted his thoughts about Molly Gaudry’s electronic chapbook, “Anatomy for the Artist.” Find the post at  Righteous Rightings.

In case you missed it, the first stop was Donna Vorreyer’s, at her blog. Next was Catherine Fitchett at Poetry Chook.

You can find information about the chapbook and tour here, including a link to where to find it and read it online.

I started writing as a child. There are still several wrinkled scribbles on lined paper around here somewhere from those days. By the time I was 12 or so, I actually attempted to write poems that others would enjoy reading. (And not embarrass me!)

I did [...]]]> by Nathan Moore

How long have you been writing poetry?

I started writing as a child. There are still several wrinkled scribbles on lined paper around here somewhere from those days. By the time I was 12 or so, I actually attempted to write poems that others would enjoy reading. (And not embarrass me!)

I did go for many years only writing very occasionally, but over the past year something inside of me “clicked” and now I just can’t seem to turn it off. I hope it continues … .

I have always had a very large creative “monkey” on my back that I have to humor, and writing poetry keeps him satisfied, and is much cheaper than some of my other creative endeavors!

Do you schedule time for writing or do you write when inspiration strikes?

I try to write a bit every day, usually very early in the morning when the house is quiet. Just me, my laptop, and a cup of coffee. When I can’t do that for one reason or another, I feel as though I am forgetting something important, like my vitamins!

When wild inspiration strikes, it is, “Quick, drop everything and get it down before you lose it!” I have been known to burn dinner when that happens.

Do you have any writing rituals?

Not really. I just make myself sit down and start typing. I will sometimes have a very vague idea so I just brainstorm on the computer, typing like mad anything that comes into my head for about a half hour, then I look back and see if one or more lines jump out at me. I like to take a simple idea about something and try to turn it on it’s ear or inside out. I also love the prompts on Read Write Poem. They give me something to write about when the well feels dry.

What is your process for revising a poem?

I read the darn thing over and over (usually aloud), making changes along the way but always keeping the original. (Sometimes the original is better than my revisions!) Then I put it all away for a day or two and when I get it out, I start the whole process over again until I feel it is either “good enough” or am so sick of it I never want to look at it again!

Has blogging changed your writing or the way that you write?

Unfortunately, I don’t think anything can change me! My writing just IS, and very determined to be it’s own boss. Blogging does however, guilt me into writing something down when I may want to play hooky. Right now my goal is to put something new on the blog twice a week. I would love to be able to post a fabulous poem every day, but as of yet, that is just not happening.

Have you ever collaborated with another poet or artist? What did you think of that experience?

No, I haven’t had the opportunity as of yet, but it is something that I would really love to do. I think it would be such an enjoyable learning experience and may help me grow as a writer.

What line of poetry do you love the most?

I know this is a bit trite as it’s such a popular line, but when I first read Robert Frost at about age 10, I just kept coming back to the line, “I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” That one line has stayed with me always. I even wrote an autobiographical poem a few months ago entitled, “Robert Frost” that references this line. It’s on my blog. (A shameless bit of self-promotion.)

What line of your own poetry do you love the most?

Oh, I get favorites all the time and then I write something new and develop a different “crush.” One line that I put in a poem recently has always been my mantra to help get through hard times, so that might be the line. “I will never be broken.”

Name your three favorite poets.

I have to preface this by saying that I spent my entire childhood reading over and over from a VERY old and tattered poetry book. I drove my siblings insane with my orations. The poets in this book are like my old cherished friends, and when I re-read them I feel such nostalgia and joy. Limiting is impossible, but Emerson, Wordsworth, Longfellow and all the gang. Frost of course.

Part of the reason I have trouble writing in a more modern style is that those old poems have seeped so deeply into my subconscious and they are always trying to “escape.”

What’s the most important thing a poem does?

In my mind, the very best poetry speaks to the reader and opens their hearts and minds to new ideas, thoughts and beliefs.

What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever written a poem?

It’s not really weird, but this summer while on vacation. I know I should have been out just having fun, but I still made time every morning to write. My husband thinks I have a slight touch of insanity.

What interests you about participating in Read Write Poem?

I don’t feel alone anymore. In the small town where I have always lived, there is really no outlet or community of writers, poets, etc. so I have been operating on my own little desert island. I also have no formal education; the last writing class I took was in High School! (About the time Noah was building the Ark). Since joining this group, I have made some wonderful friends and have been mentored by them. To read their work really makes me want to be a better poet. To have someone actually read my work and find some merit in it is just the most amazing thing. Before RWP, when someone read my words I felt like they were just humoring a poor, half-witted child. I still feel that way at times, but to have these much more talented and experienced poets tell me that I CAN write is just indescribable to me.

Can poetry save the world?

Well, not in itself. But the truth, honesty and beauty of poetry can uplift humanity from it’s basic struggle and transport all of us into the hope of something better, something finer. When someone who has never been interested in poetry or artistic expression through words reads one of my pieces and it causes them to develop an interest in poetry in general, I feel that is why I write, and that can be part of how poetry can “save the world.”

Have a question or thought to share? Let us know in the comments section of this post.

Community director Nathan Moore found The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry and left the academy. He once lived in a house with three walls. Nathan shares his writing at Exhaust Fumes and French Fries.

Zachary Schomburg setting off a few sparks

One of the tenets of surrealism from Andre Breton’s Le Manifeste du Surréalisme is the concept of manufacturing a “spark” set off by touching together two images/words that have no logical [...]]]> by Zachary Schomburg

Zachary Schomburg setting off a few sparks

The spark that happens from these two unrelated tropes will be the heart of this poem.

One of the tenets of surrealism from Andre Breton’s Le Manifeste du Surréalisme is the concept of manufacturing a “spark” set off by touching together two images/words that have no logical relationship with one another. This creates a third thing, the space between those two points, that has never before existed, something a reader has no way of intellectually compartmentalizing. While Breton is mostly talking about the spark between singular images, I think a similar electricity, that third undefinable thing, can happen while putting whole tropes together, clashing metaphors, etc.

This is not a new idea — the Italians were way ahead of the French here. Almost all sonnets have some kind of volta, some turn of logic about three-quarters of the way through the poem (depending on whether it is Petrarchian or Shakespearean) that puts the poem’s last lines in emotional, narrative, conceptual contrast with what preceded them. It is where the poem gets turned on its head never to return to its original uprightness; it is where the poem hinges. I believe that without some sort of volta, a poem falls flat and is one-dimensional because it has nothing to butt up against.

So, what I propose is that we write a poem in two parts and then later combine those parts at its volta.

Part one

Write a missive to someone you knew, personally, who died a while ago, someone for whom you haven’t grieved in some time. Tell them about a very specific memory between the two of you, perhaps one that they wouldn’t even necessarily remember. This shouldn’t take up more than five to seven lines or so. For example, I would tell my grandpa that I remember being a child and sitting on his lap, watching the Kansas City Royals on television, that he had a glass of ice milk, and that his chewing tobacco smelled minty.

Part two

Make a minor confession, something you haven’t told anyone before (but that isn’t necessarily a major secret — or hell, confess what you want). Perhaps you’ll write about something you’ve stolen, some small moment of indiscretion, transgression or weakness, something for which you hold some guilt. This should only be a few lines long. Maybe the last of those lines can address how it made you feel to steal this thing (or whatever your confession might be).

These parts have nothing to do with one another. In other words, your confession does not relate to your memory of your lost loved one. When putting both parts together, find a turn of phrase that creates a narrative shift — something like “I wanted to tell you …  .”

Also, I should be clear that what we’re doing has nothing to do with Surrealism. In fact, what will be created with my suggestions will be far from it. But that spark that happens from these two unrelated tropes will be the heart of this poem. Hopefully, you’ll be able to get at something that you can emotionally understand but not articulate.

Zachary Schomburg is the author of Scary, No Scary (Black Ocean, 2009) and The Man Suit (Black Ocean, 2007). He is a co-editor of both Octopus Magazine and Octopus Books. A collaborative chapbook with Emily Kendal Frey, “Team Sad,” was published in 2009 by Cinematheque Press. He lives in Portland, Ore. You can find out more about his poetry at his blog, The Lovely Arc.

In case you missed it, the first stop was Donna Vorreyer’s, at her blog.

You can find information about the chapbook and tour here, [...]]]> Catherine Fitchett is one of our hosts on the (virtual) book tour of Molly Gaudry’s electronic chapbook, “Anatomy for the Artist.” Find out what she has to say at Poetry Chook.

In case you missed it, the first stop was Donna Vorreyer’s, at her blog.

You can find information about the chapbook and tour here, including a link to where to find it and read it online.

If you would like to get on the tour host schedule, join the Read Write Poem Virtual Book Tour group and leave us a note on the wire or forum page. (We’re looking for a few more people in general and for April, specifically. It’s not to late to get on the tour and get a copy of January G. O’Neil’s Underlife, our tour for April.)

Be sure to come back tomorrow for another prompt (it’s our celebrity prompt).

Please read this page [...]]]> by the Read Write Poem Staff

How did last week’s image prompt inspire you? Did you write to it, or something else? (It’s okay if you didn’t write to prompt. We’re just glad you are here, reading and writing poetry.)

Be sure to come back tomorrow for another prompt (it’s our celebrity prompt).

Please read this page to find out how the Get Your Poem On and Read Write Prompt posts work.

Remember that work linked from this post is shared in precisely that spirit: sharing, as opposed to critiquing.

If you haven’t done so already, please read all the pages under About in the navigation bar.

If you participate in a Read Write Prompt, we ask that you link back here in your posts, either with a link to Read Write Poem or by using the Read Write Poem badge in your post. Sidebar links are great but it helps others find the site when you link in every post you contribute to the project. It’s not a lot to ask in acknowledgment of the work everyone is doing in providing prompts for members to use.

This [...]]]> You might know we’re planning another prompt-every-day for those who love (or who have a love-hate relationship with)  daily poem-writing in April (which is National Poetry Month in the United States — although there is an international following of writing a poem every day in April, too, so it is not just about the States).

This is a call for prompts because we want to run your ideas, one every day, in April. So here’s what to do:

• Prompts must be no more than 250 words, and we will take the first 30 that we receive.
• Include “NaPoWriMo Prompt” in the subject line of your email as well as your username (e.g., the name you use when you log in) so we can match you up with your prompt and give you the link love.
• Email your submission (in the body of the email — no attachments please) to prompts (at) readwritepoem (dot) org!

We’ll let you know when we’ve got all we need, but don’t delay because we want to be ready come April Fools’ Day.