It's not too late to make a plan for poetry month! Whether you want to sign up to write a poem a day or unofficially just plan to crank out some poetry in April, there are plenty of prompts and resources to keep you going strong all month. And that’s not all that’s going on either. Note: Check back often, since I’ll be updating this list as I come across other resources to participate in poetry month.

"National Poetry Month is the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K-12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, bloggers, and, of course, poets marking poetry's important place in our culture and our lives." Read more about the creation of National Poetry Month here at Poets.org

Ways to participate

• Record yourself reading a poem, and share why you chose that work online using the hashtag #ShelterinPoems. Be sure to tag @poetsorg on twitter and instagram!
• Download the National Poetry Month logo (in color, grayscale, for web or print) to display on your web site or social media
• Download a free National Poetry Month poster
• More ways to celebrate on Poets.org
• This great list of National Poetry Month online open mics and readings curated by Devi Lockwood includes a list of online open mics, readings, classes, workshops, and prompts.

Read/Listen/Watch Poems

• Sign up to receive a poem-a-day in your email inbox
• Subscribe to the Poem-a-Day podcast
• Listen to poems on the Poetry Archive web site (launches April 10)
• "Dear Poet": Promoting Poetry and Poets Laureate to Kids at Home – watch poems read by poet laureates
• Poets in Pajamas series – hosted by Sundress Publications, Sundays at 7pm EDT
• Wednesday Night Poetry open mic – hosted by Kai Coggin
• Entropy Magazine’s HUGE list of April Virtual Readings
• Furious Flower Facebook Live Reading Series – Fridays at 2pm EDT in April
• WePoetry Global open mic on April 18 at 7am EDT (7pm Phillipines time)
• Green Mountains Review Social Distance Reading Series – new reading videos released on Wednesdays and Sundays. You can currently find readings by Terrance Hayes, Kathryn Nuernberger, Philip Metres, and more.
• The Sierra Poetry Festival is going virtual and free to all! April 18, 8:45 PDT. Featuring Ellen Bass, Paul Tran and more! Register for free here.
• Online Reading: Lise Goett, Roberto Tejada, Carolyn Forche, and Mark Wunderlich Sunday, April 26, 2020 from 05:30 pm to 07:00 pm MDT
• Join Felicia Zamora & friends Diana Marie Delgado, Peggy Robles-Alvarado, C. Russell Price, and TC Tolbert in celebrating the book birthday for Felicia’s BODY OF RENDER from Red Hen Press! The event will be moderated by Felicia Zamora. Readings and celebration begins at 5:00 PM (PST), Tuesday, April 21, 2020.

The Poetry Center at Smith College is putting together digital care packages! Care packages may include poems, essays, recipes, craft projects, and creative prompts - you choose the mix. They will be sent out via email at a date TBD. Click here to sign up or go to the Google form.

Scottish Poetry Library Stay at Home Festival – news of and links to an array of interesting things we've found online, from actors reading poems to online courses to virtual festivals.

National Poetry Month Projects by Lit Mags/Presses (clmp members) – Check out what BOA Editions, Evergreen Review, Green Writers Press, The Iowa Review, Lucky Jefferson, The Paris Review, Poetry magazine, Poetry Society of America, and The Rumpus are up to for NaPoMo!

NaPoWriMo.net 30 poems in 30 days - Participate in NaPoWriMo.net 30 poems in 30 days prompts and poet web site listings.

Writer's Digest is running their April Poem-A-Day Challenge – Anyone can participate--there's no registration and no fees. They will post a daily prompt; you write a poem based on the prompt; you post the poem in the comments on their blog. Easy and fun! You can also submit up to 5 poems to be shared on the Writers Digest site.

Sheltering-In: Poems And Poetry Resources – extensive list of resources hosted by Northampton, MA Arts Council, including digital care packages, podcasts, online workshops and exercises, prompts, online poetry readings, and more!

Social/Distance Online Writing Retreat with Amanda Moore – Join Amanda Moore for her online writing retreat with craft tips, readings to inspire, submission suggestions and more!

Writing in Stressful Times: The Covid-19 Pandemic via Adele Kenny – Adele Kenny has a wonderfully inspiring poetry blog The Music In It: Adele Kenny's Poetry Blog chock full of over 300 writing prompts, including her most recent post entitled Prompt #349 - Writing in Stressful Times: The Covid-19 Pandemic. She gives helpful commentary, quotes, resources, and several writing exercises and/or prompts in each post.

The Rise of Quarantine Zines and How to Make Your Own – lots of history and information on how to create and share your own zine.

Writing Prompts for Stay-At-Home Writers – hosted by LiteraryArts.org, shares prompts from established writers and poets throughout the week.

The Poetry Prompt Project, lessons and prompts by Joey Gould – eight well crafted poetry writing lessons and prompts for the beginner to advanced poet.

Other Sites with Poetry Prompts

Poetry Super Highway Prompt-A-Day - Submit your own prompt to be posted and read other poet’s prompts during April.

River Heron Review – Poetry Month Prompts with Visuals

Fifty Two Poetry - includes 52 poetry prompts. "Write a poem a week. Start now. Keep going."

Poets & Writers puts out regular prompts for poetry as well as fiction and nonfiction on their Writing Prompts page. You can also subscribe to their e-newsletter and receive them right in your inbox weekly.

Daily Word Prompts by Julie Paul – via her website, www.juliepaul.ca, where you can subscribe for daily emails, or on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/juliepaulthewriter

Ploughshares shared their favorite writing prompts of all-time in this article posted in December. Lots of great prompts in this list, including one I hope to take advantage of: "Write a dialog between your eyes and feet," from Anastacia Tolbert.

500 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing from The Learning Network. "The categorized list below touches on everything from sports to travel, education, gender roles, video games, fashion, family, pop culture, social media and more, and, like all our Student Opinion questions, each links to a related Times article and includes a series of follow-up questions. What's more, all these questions are still open for comment by any student 13 or older."

Bernadette Mayer's list of writing prompts – The Poetry Foundation describes Bernadette Mayer as "an avant-garde writer associated with the New York School of poets . . . known for her innovative use of language."

If you find other ways to participate or NaPoMo activities, please share them in the comments!

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