Submissions open for 2022 The Poetrygram Annual is a sister publication to the Poetrygram podcast. Submissions are now open for poets who would like to contribute to The Poetrygram Annual for 2022. For submission guidelines please read on… The theme for 2022 is hunger, which may be interpreted any way…

How to write a vivid ode. For this month’s poetry prompt, I’m going to guide you through writing an ode. Beginning poets should not be put off by the name-dropping of a traditional form. An ode is simply a poem in which the speaker declares their love or admiration for…

Exploring colour in your poetry For those of us who live in the western hemisphere, February ushers in the first signs of colour after the chill of winter. Spring is not here yet, but daffodil and iris buds brighten flower beds. Glossy green ferns smother stone walls. …

Fancy some quick-fire poetry inspiration? Here are twenty short prompts to get your pen moving! Simply choose one of the prompts below, set a ten minute timer and start writing. Don’t censor or overthink your inital response to these prompts. Just let your subconscious mind take you wherever it wants…

What you owe your readership. It happens almost everytime. I step off the stage at a poetry reading and an audience member approaches me and asks: So, what happened in the end, with you and that biker in 1989? To which, I reply: Um. I was eight years old in…

A master list of how-to articles. One of the most common questions I am asked about the poetry masterclass I run is whether I teach the traditional forms. The truth is, at masterclass level, I would already expect students to have a working knowledge of the traditional forms. This doesn’t…

Exploring couplets in your poetry A new year dawns. Twelve blank sheets of paper lay ahead, crisp as January snow. Let’s make our first imprint. What follows is a prompt to inspire your first poem of 2022 (although if you’re reading this in April, August or November, in some far-off…

I In our pocket-sized holiday apartment on Bourbon Street you fasten the red lace bra you ripped off me last night, while the neon lights below burned orange and electric blue. Now dawn spins the sidewalks into gold, you kneel at my feet, as though I were Erzuile herself, and pull silk panties over my…