The Writers' Greenhouse: Can't bear to stop poeming?

If November’s poem a day has whetted your appetite and you can’t bear to stop, don’t worry: the Meddling with Poetry course is starting in February and I’ve got plenty to keep you going till then!

The first time I wrote a poem a day for a month, I learnt more about writing poetry from doing that than from years of study, and my final poem was a rondine with the refrain "I never want to stop":

I never want to stop this daily dip
in unexpected worlds: I step and drop:
a landscape springs to life, forgotten shop
of dusty dreams, or in a steampunk ship
ballooning up, a man extends his grip
and even if these hopeful visions pop,
I never want to stop

exploring. This is me: my dreams outstrip
reality, and when my hopes should flop,
I tie balloons to ships, like I could swap
a wish for truth. Though all my castles slip,
I never want to stop.

I remembered the poem as joyful, but on rereading, it's strangely wistful. It was a difficult time, and writing a poem a day had helped me recognise that, and also navigate it. So, I didn't stop. I kept on for years and regularly return to it. And every time, I get that same double-win: I learn a ton more about writing poems, and the process itself is a compass and a rudder in my life.

As tumultuous teenagers, so many of us reach for poetry, to process it all. But as adults, with much bigger things going on, and many more stresses, we don't. Somewhere along the line, people are taught that poetry isn't for them, is too complicated, is silly or pointless... and this unbelievably joyful powerful tool for our mental and emotional health just sits in our toolbox, unused.

Meddling with Poetry: poetry is for playing with, poetry is for everyone That's why I created the Meddling with Poetry course. Writing poetry is far too useful to be locked away in an elitist golden cage. It should fly free, accessible to everyone. Poetry is for playing with: it does seriously wonderful things, but we don't have to be serious about it; we can meddle with it. And poetry is for everyone: it's part of our birthright of language, from nursery rhymes through to song lyrics through to the kind of acrostic wreathed sestinas I get up to when I want to surf the big waves. It belongs to you.

The course is eight glorious weeks, one evening a week, exploring a host of approaches to poetry and different types of poems. All levels are welcome, from total newbies to hardened bards. You can join online (Thursday evenings) OR in person in Oxford (Wednesday evenings), and I'm looking at opening up an international online version. The poem-a-day part is completely optional, but if you want to try it, your weekly poem-a-day booklets give you everything you need – and as they gradually assemble, they form a fantastic little poetry bible of 56 lovely forms, complete with contemporary examples, which you can constantly dip back into.

And as an early-bird offer: All the course fees are going up from 1 Jan, but if you book before the end of the year, you can still join at the old price of £275. (You don't need to pay the full amount by the end of the year, just the deposit of £75.) Read all the lovely details, reviews, and get the early-bird discount here.

Meanwhile...

If you're already hooked on poeming, and December and January are looking like a barren featureless desert without your regular dose of poem-writing, here's plenty to keep you going!

The Writers' Greenhouse Poem a Day page

My Poem a Day page with its 30 prompts will stay up till the start of Feb, so if you missed out on any of those, you can dip in anytime.

The NaPoWriMo archives

NaPoWriMo is the April poetry-writing month and the main site, NaPoWriMo.net has archives of the previous seven years of their prompts – so there's a wealth! Occasionally prompts are repeated across years, but there's always plenty of new ones as well. Sometimes I've cut and pasted all the prompts into a little booklet I can print out to carry around with me, so I can have a more off-line poetry-writing time. The off-line bit is good, though that does mean you miss out on all the links, so I switch between the two.

Poetry School

Poetry School ran NaPoWriMo prompts in 2017 and 2018, and have some really super prompts. Their instructions do err on the bossy negative side at times, eg saying "Don't be sentimental!" instead of "Try writing this in a practical, straightforward way" or "This is very difficult!" instead of "This is great fun to play with" etc. Mentally edit out any frowny phrases and enjoy the prompts. You may need to register (for free) to see the prompts.

The Poet's Garrett

After vanishing for several years, The Poet's Garrett is back with a new web address. This is a hugely comprehensive archive of forms, which you can search by national origin and the number of lines. It often has quite weak examples, but that can be heartening! I especially love that it has lists of poem types grouped by how many lines they have: always handy when you want to write an acrostic poem.

My newsletter

I also send out writing inspiration and help on my newsletter – I email about once a month and each email has a batch of four Writing Skills: a form / genre skill, an exercise skill, a themed call for submissions, and an exercise skill featuring an online resource. It's a mix of fiction and poetry prompts and often individual skills can be used for either. To get that, you can sign up here.