get your poem on #27

Did you come up with similes, metaphors or anything else this week? We want to know.
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 [...]

Posted by Jill on 05.19.2008 at 12:01 am// Tagged: Get Your Poem On, Jill , , , , ,

read write prompt #27: gulls like white handkerchiefs

Gulls like white handkerchiefs. How I wish I’d written that line. It is a gorgeous simile. Alas. It is not mine. It is a line from Isabel Allende’s new memoir, The Sum of Our Days.
This week, your prompt is fairly simple. Make comparisons. Notice the world around you. Turn your observations into similes (and [...]

Posted by Jill on 05.14.2008 at 12:01 am// Tagged: Jill, Read Write Prompt , , , , , , , , , , ,


welcome to read write poem

Read Write Poem is an online gathering place for those who love poetry — and for those who suspect that, with a little nurturing, they could grow to love poetry. Whether you are new to writing poetry or have been writing for years, you are welcome here. If you don’t write poetry but love to read and discuss it, this is also the place for you. Read more about the project.


Get the Read Write Poem badge for your site! We have two versions to choose from. Just click on the badge to the left to snag the code.


read write poll

What’s the longest poem you’ve ever written?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

other read write poem joints

Facebook (sign up to be added to our mailing list)
Identica (sign up to be part of impromptu collaborative poem events)

participant-run journals, zines and sites


  • random
    poetry prompt

      A different word or phrase will appear here each time you visit the site or refresh the page. Your current prompt is — wrangle

  • random
    collaborating tip

    Write a poem, then take out all the important words, leaving only blank spaces. Send it to one or more collaborators and have them fill in the blanks. All the variants could even be collected in a series.


  • random
    writing tip

    Think of all the things that provoke anxiety in you, and write them into a poem.

  • random
    reading tip

    Make a ritual out of reading poetry. If you can, set aside the same time every day — even if it is just the last ten minutes before bed, or your morning bus ride, or whatever — and dedicate that time to poetry. Read from your favorite chair, or make a Sunday afternoon date for yourself at a local café to read and sip something yummy.

  • random
    poetry quote

    We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry. — Yeats