The Writer - 04.2020

6 | The Writer • April 2020

Want to read more poetry

this year? Here’s how.

These (free!) websites, newsletters, and social media

accounts will help keep you immersed in verse.

QPoem-a-Day

The Academy of American

Poets runs the original daily

poetry series, which features

more than 250 brand-new

poems each year. Each poem

also is accompanied by com-

mentary about the piece by

the author. On weekends, the

series highlights classic

works from well-known

poets. And if you’d rather not

clutter your inbox, you can

also follow the series on

social media.

Poets.org/poem-a-day

QPoem of the Day

The Poetry Foundation’s daily

poetry newsletter highlights

a wealth of classic poets

from the organization’s vast

archives all year long. The

Foundation also runs an

Audio Poem of the Day

series, where works are read

by actors or the poets

themselves.

poetryfoundation.org/

newsletter

QPoetry Daily newsletter

This mailing list delivers

recently published work from

emerging and established

poets once a day in addition

to poetry news and features.

Each newsletter also includes

information about both the

poet and the featured poem’s

source of publication.

poems.com

QThe New Yorker

Poetry Bot

The New Yorker has a long

and prestigious history of

publishing some of America’s

finest poets. Now that his-

tory includes Twitter: Follow

the publication’s “Poetry

Bot” account to introduce

your feed to some of the

best poems from the

archives. (Readers can also

use Facebook Messenger to

install the bot.)

twitter.com/tnypoetry

QButton Poetry

It’s one thing to experience a

poem on the page. It’s quite

another to see and hear it

performed by the author. But-

ton Poetry’s YouTube channel

has a vast collection of vid-

eos showcasing poets from

around the world, including

Sabrina Benaim’s 2014 per-

formance of “Explaining My

Depression to My Mother,”

which has nearly 8 million

views, and Neil Hilborn’s

2013 reading of “OCD,”

which has 14 million.

youtube.com/ButtonPoetry

WRITING PROMPT

POETRY PLAY

Feeling stuck lately? Let these

constraints shake off a case of

poet’s block and have you

falling back in love with the

genre all over again.

Could you write a poem using

only...

• Two-syllable words?


• Four-syllable words?


• Three-letter words?


• Twenty letters of the alphabet?


• Thirteen letters of the alphabet?


• Verbs and nouns?


• One hundred words?


• Fifty words?


• Fifteen words?


• Five words?


• The last word of each sentence
  as the starting word for the next
  sentence?


• Thirty syllables?


• Two lines?


• Nine lines with nine syllables in
  each line?


• Twenty questions?


• Iambic pentameter?


• Letters that aren’t “e” or “a?”


• The “snowball” constraint, in
  which a poem starts with a one-
  letter word and each word after
  it grows in size by one letter (a
  two-letter word, followed by a
  three-letter word, etc.)?
  jesadaphorn/Shutterstock