Thursday, January 31, 2008

Get Ready...

So tonight's the night! If you're still up at midnight, feel free to try to lay down some verse. Or perhaps you'd prefer to wake tomorrow feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the first poem. Don't worry about self-editing. Don't be concerned with your rhyme or meter. We're not reachin' for Shakespeare here.

The goal is to get something out, on paper (or binary), that comes from you and helps you to express, understand, or experience the world. It can be long and rambly, short and succinct, or completely absurd. There are no real rules for poetry, and there are certainly not really rules for my challenge.

For an extra challenge, try a different style each day. Write a haiku, a sonnet, a limerick, or explore the style of e.e. cummings. Whatever you do, check in tomorrow if you have a chance and let us see some of those first attempts, unedited, unchecked, imperfect and raw. Good luck! Have fun!

Monday, January 28, 2008

FAQ

What's the idea here? Write a poem a day in February.

Are there rules? Not really. One poem per day and it has to be original.

When do I start? Midnight, February 1st. Not before.

When do I finish? 11:59 p.m. February 29th.

What if I skip a day? Can I catch up later? That's up to you. Come out with 29 poems by 11:59 p.m. on February 29th and you win.

What do I win? You will be awarded a winner badge for your blog or website and a printable certificate. Collect by contacting me at annakissmm at gmail dot com.

How do I prove I finished? Email me your poems or refer me to where they are posted and I will count from 1 to 29. Contact at annakissmm at gmail dot com.

Okay, I finished. Now what? Up to you too. You can send your poems to me for publishing on this blog (easier for me if you do it regularly throughout the month as opposed to at the end)(oh, and you keep your copyright), provide me with a link to add to our participants list in the sidebar, print out all your poems and make a chapbook to sell on the street corner, organize a reading in your town to share all your new poetry, or build a bonfire and turn them all to dust. Contact me at annakissmm at gmail dot com.

Monday, January 21, 2008

The Month of Poetry Badge

For those interested in placing the Month of Poetry Badge on their blog or website, you can do one of two things - view the page source and find the html yourself, or I can email you the code if you post a comment or contact me via email.

A Month of Poetry

Friday, January 18, 2008

Welcome

So a year ago, because I suck so bad I failed to write a novel in 30 days (okay, really I just almost lost my hand and couldn't write anymore), I decided that I would write a poem every day in February. So I did. 28 poems in 28 days. Which is what I was going to call this blog until a friend reminded me that this is a leap year and there are 29 days. Oops.

This year I decided to take my vision to the masses. I am inviting anyone and everyone to join me as I write 29 poems in 29 days. You can post them to your blog, send them to me to publish on here, bind them in chapbooks and sell them, read the poems at poetry readings, or hide them away in a box never to be seen again. Whatever you want, it's up to you.

I hope to organize a live reading of February poems in Cleveland Heights, Ohio sometime in April (National Poetry Month) and encourage others to do the same. We're taking this international.

Anyone willing to help out in this venture, please let me know. If there's enough interest, we'll get a real site of our own, make html badges for people to put on their blogs, and start a webring. If not, it'll just be me sitting here by myself quietly writing every day, broadcasting nowhere. sigh.