Podcast to share and inspire poetry
Look to the future and write a poem for today’s NaPoWriMo prompt from Java, making a welcome return to the podcast.
For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.
If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com
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.
Submissions are now open for the #napowrimo2024 podcast. Each day will feature a poet sharing a poem and a prompt for listeners to write their daily poem for the challenge. Please submit up to three poems with a writing prompt for each one, along with a photo and short bio here. If you haven’t participated before please listen to last year’s podcasts before submitting. Deadline for submissions: March 1.
Here is a poem from former guest Brent Hagen in response to C. D, Seventeen‘s prompt on the recent podcast. It’s always great to share poems inspired by the podcast. Please submit your own here for the chance to be featured.
garbled jargons
the way the teller counts out my paycheck
on the faux marble counter seems vaguely like a weapon
here you are, she says, and from her genuine smile i can tell
she is having lunch with someone special
someone who helped her and she helped
and that person, i can tell by the way she slips the not enough pieces of paper
into a butterfly sarcophagus,
has a laugh that is the opposite of a textbook.
i consider telling her a pun that subtly decimates the disintegrity
of an unthought life, myself included of course, this occasional urge i have
to mention i have the onyx larynx of a puppy dog drowning its sorrows
an irony-chapped heart
why i once woke up in a comma;
but usually words that lead to not understanding come off as derision
and seem to most vaguely like a weapon
Brent Hagen
It’s the end of NaPoWriMo, but it’s also just the beginning as you begin to develop, polish and share the poems you’ve written during April. This podcast features some of the poems contributors to this year’s podcasts have already shared. There are poems by Will Ingrams, Java, Brent Hagen, Haley Nguyen, Scott Gooch and Patrick Widdess.
Please send up to three poems you’ve written during NaPoWriMo including the prompts that inspired them here for inclusion in a future podcast. If possible please send a recording of yourself reading your poems as well the text. Deadline is May 31.
National Poetry Writing month (NaPoWriMo) will be returning in April. Last year we featured a daily poem and prompt from poets around the globe. Submissions are now open for for this year’s challenge. Please submit a poem (your own work) and a related prompt that can inspire anyone to pick up their pen and write a poem. Please also include a photo and short bio and send to poetrynonstop@gmail.com.
Check out the prompts from last year:
Merseyside poet, playwright and poetry editor Alan Parry joins us to read from his new collection Echoes from Rare Swan Press. He talks about how we can explore our lives and find stories and poems from our experiences and memories. He also talks about his many other projects including the growth of his poetry and arts collective The Broken Spine.
Alan’s writing exercise
My day job is a Lecturer in English, I work with students who struggle to tell their own stories and one of my favourite promts is to encourage free writing in response to a favourite photograph of their youth. What can you tell me is going on in that image? Who took it? Who is there? Where is it? I ask them to make zero attempt to be poetic, or factual, just get the story out and on paper. Time yourself I say, give yourself fifteen minutes to get down what you can, then spend as long as you need tidying it up. I can help my students edit their work and I’m prepared to read your work and offer advice on Twitter to anybody who has a go at responding to this prompt. Tell me your story! Dan Kitson once said that we spend our lives being told that the world does not revolve around us, but from our individual perspectives it kind of does. We see everything from our own eyes. I think that this is so true and can be harnessed effectively.
Please send your poems here for feedback from Alan and to feature on future episodes.
Alan Parry is a poet, playwright and poetry editor from Merseyside, England. He is an English Literature graduate and English teacher. Alan enjoys gritty realism, open ends, miniature schnauzers and 60s girl groups. He has previously had work published by Dream Noir, Streetcake Magazine, Black Bough Poetry, Porridge, Ghost City Press, Anti-Heroin Chic, and others. He cites Alan Bennett, Jack Kerouac, and James Joyce as inspiration. His debut collection, Neon Ghosts, is available from The Broken Spine website. In 2021, Alan
formed the collective The Southport Poets with Paul Robert Mullen, Mary Earnshaw, and David Walshe and their debut, Belisima, was released by Dreich in autumn 2021.
Last month’s NaPoWriMo series provided a wealth of prompts with some fantastic responses. We finish this episode with a poem from Will Ingrams who not only contributed a prompt but submitted a poem every day. He shares his Ode to a Flying Fish from Daisy Thurston Gent’s prompt.
If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com
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.
That’s it for NaPoWriMo 2022. Thank you to the 30 poets who have offered such a variety of poems and prompts over the month which I know have inspired many fantastic poems already. Thanks also to everyone who has shared poems during the month. It has been a pleasure to read them.
NaPoWriMo may have finished but in a way this is just the beginning. You’ll hopefully have lots of ideas and first drafts that you can develop over the coming months. I would love to feature them on the podcast so please send text and recordings of up to three poems from NaPoWriMo before May 31. If you don’t want to record you can send the text and I’ll do my best to read it. Please send submissions here.
If you haven’t heard all the podcasts you can still catch up with the playlist below, and make sure you subscribe to catch all future podcasts.
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.
Here’s a poem by Roger Waldron written in response to John Osborne’s writing exercise. We welcome submissions of poems written in response to any of the writing prompts or exercises on Poetry Non-Stop. You can submit poems here.
Supermarket Sweep
I met my love in the supermarket carpark.
She was reversing her vintage Hillman Minx
with such confidence I had to stand and applaud
She locked it and threw me a glance asked if I’d seen
enough or would I like to see her do her weekly shop
and make comment on the cleaning products she’s considering
before she made her final purchase I asked if I could push
her trolley She asked if I’d got a pound She smiled as I adjusted
my pockets held my hand and led me down the bright lights of the toiletry aisle
Roger Waldron
This podcast features a selection of poems sent in by listeners. We have heard many talented and accomplished poets in the last year. But Poetry Non-Stop was always intended to inspire everyone to write poetry and give new poets a platform.
This episode features poetry from:
Sarah Davies
Ann Walton / Kelley Allen
Ray Dunlap
Alex Blustin
Patrick Sheil
And music from Moth Conspiracy
It was particularly pleasing to receive poems in response to some of the prompts provided by guests. There are also a few inspired by prompts from the Poetry Non-Stop book which you can buy here.
Poetry Non-Stop is always open to submissions of poems inspired by writing prompts on the podcast. You can submit poems here and you could be featured on the blog or a future podcast.
Poetry Non-Stop 