Poetry Year - Rules

A Poem A Day? The Revised Rules

Your goal as a participant is to set a goal for yourself and keep it. The main idea is to write a poem each day for an extended period of time. You can decide the period of time yourself - a week, a month, a year, a lifetime...

In the original rules you were allowed to catch up later if you missed a day by writing two poems some other day, but not write poems in advance. This rule is now also up to you. If you find it more challenging to only allow yourself to count one poem each day, or if you want to write your poems in advance, then go ahead. You set the rules.

Set in Stone or Scribbled in Sand

You may write your poems in any way you prefer. Type them on your computer, write them down in a notebook, scribble them on a paper napkin, carve them in stone... The important thing is that you write them down. Just making up a poem in your head without writing it down doesn't count. This rule won't change.

You don't have to publish your poems anywhere or send them anywhere to be counted. Just keep track of your poem count and update your on-line poem count at your convenience.

Is This a Poem?

The definition of a poem is very loose. It doesn't have to rhyme, alliterate or use any classic meter. If you call it a poem, then it is a poem. There is no length requirement either. If you manage to write a single-word poem and can proudly call it a poem, then good for you.

(The Original Poetry Year 2005 Rules)

Your goal as a participant is to write one poem each day during 2005. If you miss a day, you may write an extra poem some other day. You may not write poems in advance. If you happen to write "excess" poems one day, then that's good for you but you may not add them to your poem count. Otherwise it would be possible to just write 365 poems on January 1st, and that's not quite the idea of Poetry Year 2005.

If you join during 2005 you will of course be a number of days behind. Don't worry, you can catch up those days by writing extra poems at any pace you prefer. You can even join on New Year's Eve 2005 and write 365 poems in one day, although that also fairly much misses the point.