January 2022 – Poetry Non-Stop

NaPoWriMo 2022

January 28, 2022January 31, 2022 patrickwiddess1 Comment

It’s coming up to April which is NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) when poets attempt to write a new poem every day. I’m looking for 30 poets to share a writing prompt for a series of daily blogs and podcasts to keep participants inspired and motivated.

To be considered please send a writing prompt and poem based on the prompt to poetrynonstop [at] gmail.com by March 1st. Put NaPoWriMo as the subject.

The prompt shouldn’t be too complicated. Participants are writing a poem a day. It should be topic or exercise that can be used to spark ideas in a fairly short writing session. It could be a simple as ‘write a poem about your favourite food’ if you have a good poem about that.

If selected you will be asked to produce a short recording sharing your prompt and poem for a podcast to go out in April. Your poem and prompt will also be published on the blog along with a short intro. Submissions are open to all and poems can be published or unpublished.

I look forward to sharing your ideas and helping new poems grow in NaPoWriMo 2022.

Episode 40: John Hegley – Odes to John Keats and Fishy Acrostics

January 15, 2022January 15, 2022 patrickwiddessLeave a comment

It’s a pleasure to welcome John Hegley, a poet who never fails to entertain with his words, wit, music and audience participation. In a career spanning over 40 years John has appeared on Radio 4 and Radio 1, been a regular at the Edinburgh Festival and been an inspirational tutor running creative writing classes and activities up and down the country.

Poetry Non-Stop · John Hegley – Odes to John Keats and Fishy Acrostics

He has recently published a collection of poems inspired by the life and work of John Keats with Caldew Press called A Scarcity of Biscuit. On the podcast he talks about how he came to know and appreciate Keats’ life and work starting with a residency at Keats’ house. He has continued to explore and write about the great romantic poet using his playful style of writing to reveal a lighter side to the tragic bard’s life.

John’s fish acrostics exercise

Make a paper fish and write an a poem on it with each line beginning with the letters of the word FISH and/or POISSON. See the video above for a demonstration and a couple of examples by Patrick below.

Please share your work as always. It would be great to see pictures of your fish on social media. Please post and tag @poetrynonstop. You can also send them by email here. Let’s create a shoal of poetic paper fish!

You can purchase A Scarcity of Biscuit from Caldew Press here. For John’s other work and activities, see his website: www.johnhegley.co.uk

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

John Hegley – Funny Animal Poems

January 14, 2022January 13, 2022 patrickwiddessLeave a comment

It’s a pleasure to welcome John Hegley to Poetry Non-Stop. John has entertained and inspired many over the years with his poetry, wit and music. He will be discussing his recent book A Scarcity of Biscuit inspired by the life and work of John Keats, as well as a fun creative writing exercise.

Here’s a taste of his work to entertain and fire up the imagination.

www.johnhegley.co.uk