Young Writers Society

First things first, head over to the NaPo Forum! Here you'll find fellow poet's threads, information topics, and other relevant event information. To get started, create your own thread! Give it a super fun name, and if you want to get crazy— maybe a theme! To find out more about how to get started, you can always click on the 2024 NaPo Information thread. In this topic, you can read more about what NaPo is, how to get started, and what bonuses are going to be included on YWS this month to celebrate!

Next, you're going to want to head to the FAQ thread.

Don't forget to check out the April Madness! This is an awesome March-Madness-esque bracket contest where YWS poets go head to head with their best writing from the month! It's a great way to get involved with the community and show off your killer poetry skills at the same time! The planting window for sign up is passed, but it's always so fun to read everyone's submissions and root for your favorite participating YWS poets!

Make sure to check out the 2024 Badge thread and start tracking your progress towards your badges! How many can you collect this year? Don't forget - if you want to earn your Poem A-Day Badge, make sure you're posting at least one poem a day in your NaPo thread!

A favorite from last year, #PCrewPicks and #PeoplesPick are back! Make sure to check out the official #PCrewPicks awards, here. Every poem featured by the Poetry Crew receives an exclusive badge!

Don't forget you can earn your Poetry Jam Badge by attending the poetry jams and write-ins frequently posted in the People Tab. Make sure to save the links and sign in somewhere on the WFP. If you don't see any hosted when you can attend or when you want to write, start your own! Click the WriterFeed Pad tab in your personal menu on YWS!

NaPo Countdown: It's April 22nd! So close!

Participating in the Neopolitan Games? Don't forget the week three challenges! This week's 3 challenges are so fun!

#PCrewPicks: Week two... What is the poetry crew reading this week?!

So many poetry jams happening! Join or host your own!

You may have seen different users posting about "Parlour Jams" or "Poetry Jams" and not been entirely sure what it's all about, don't worry! I'm here to hopefully tell you everything you need to know about one of the most fun parts of NaPo on YWS!

What is a Poetry/Parlour Jam?
A Poetry Jam is an opportunity to write poetry at the same time as other users in a shared document. They are similar to the popular YWS "Write-Ins" and are usually hosted in a Writers Feed Pad, Rise-Up Pad, or other shared writing pad link. Users can write poems, chat about poetry or life, or even collaborate in writing poetry together. This year to really go with our Ice Cream Theme for NaPo 2024, we decided to rebrand them a bit as "Parlour Jams" (get it? like Ice Cream Parlour?) to make them extra sweet - but it's the exact same idea!

Often during NaPo a poetry jam will feature a poetry prompt at the top - but these are completely optional unless stated otherwise. Sometimes these Jams are planned in advance and advertised around the site, sometimes they're spontaneous. They're most often posted in the Poetry Jam Club .

What's a Shared Writing Pad?
Well it just looks like a document except everyone is assigned colors, it's a bit similar to a Google Docs document in that everyone can write in real-time with their text showing up on the screen. You can ask whoever opened the pad what the language/content rules are if you're unsure - but poetry jams are normally pretty clean. If you're uncomfortable with anything let the owner of the pad or a moderator know. Also if it's on Writers Feed Pad all YWS Rules apply in the chat meaning keep it family friendly, respect all requests and warnings from moderators, and rate your spot appropriately if your writing deals with mature themes or language. Outside of these rules, the only major rule to remember is not to delete other people's work without asking if you're no the person who started the jam or write-in and sometimes it's nice to ask permission before writing comments within their work itself. That's really all you need to know!

Who can participate?
Anyone with a YWS account can jump it! (The secret is, you don't even have to be participating in NaPo or writing poetry at the moment to be present in a Poetry Jam). Just log on with your YWS username and password if it's a WFP, and you can join. If you want to check it out, that's perfectly fine - no poetry experience or special invitation needed. People normally identify themselves with their username or a nickname, so you should see some familiar usernames on the top right-side of the screen.

Can I host a Parlour Jam myself?
Absolutely! In fact, it is absolutely encouraged! If you're interested in hosting a poetry jam - you can! It might seem like it's often moderators hosting these, but if you have a prompt you want to try out with some other folks or would like some company writing - go for it! Post over in the Poetry Jam Club or the I'm Writing, Come Join Me thread and see who shows up.

How do Parlour Jams count towards NaPo
This year, like previous years, if you collect the links of participation in a certain number of jams you can actually count those towards a badge! The exact information is in the Badge Claiming thread. But this is an opportunity open to any YWSers! To count towards participation, you have to actually be writing poetry in the pad (not just logging on for a minute and posting a to-do list) but you don't have to be the host, and you don't have to be there all day!

Poetry Jams can be a fun way to meet other users and get to know people and their writing a little bit more than you're able to just by reading works in the Poetry Forum - it also allows for immediate feedback and collaboration, so they can be a great source of inspiration and fun especially during Poetry Month! I hope you try out jamming with us sometime this April!

Poetry is so much more than words on a page. It is beautiful. It is art. It is moving, and it is perfectly imperfect in every single way, every single time. Poetry is a performance and it is music. Do you want to really feel your poetry?

If so, the Spoken Word/Visual Poetry Contest is perfect for you. For the entire month of April, @EllieMae is hosting a special new contest on YWS where you have the opportunity to stand out, and share your voice, your art, and the beauty of your words.

What is Spoken Word Poetry?

Spoken word poetry is exactly what it sounds like, literally. It is poetry that is performed with your voice. This form of poetry comes in a variety of sub-categories. One of the most well-known forms is Slam Poetry, where poems are performed to an audience. These poems are often moving and convey some sort of deep, emotional message for those watching. If you look online, you can find a variety of famous slam poetry performances. One very well-known performance group is Button Poetry. I encourage you to watch some of these performances if you are interested in familiarizing yourself with the spoken word community.

Or, if you would prefer to listen to some incredible spoken word poetry from YWS users, perhaps you could check out I like to see the flowers by @alliyah. Or, Our dialogue is just a monologue with footnotes by @SpiritedWolfe. I have even published a slam poem called For anyone who wants to die. As you can see, spoken word poetry is rare on YWS, but still amazing!

You may be thinking, “I really want to participate, but I am not comfortable sharing my voice on YWS. What do I do?” Well, that leads me to our next form of poetry that is part of this contest:

What is Visual Poetry?

The definition of visual poetry has endless answers and sub-genres. Some forms of visual poetry are hand-drawn or written poems, videos, animations, photographs, and so much more! Let's take a look at some incredible visual poetry that has been published on YWS. One of my personal favourites is this animation of merciful by @herbalhour. Another example is this poem, The Duoality of Self that was a collaborative poem written by multiple users. This poem is a photograph of the original text, which allows us to see which users wrote which lines. How cool! One final example is a collab that I did with @Quillfeather in 2021 called The thoughts of Day and Night. If you take a look at this poem, you see that we experimented with text alignment to represent the difference between Day and Night.

Are you ready to start making and sharing some poetry? Do you feel inspired to share your voice, art, photos, or videos? Well, don't wait any longer! Head over to the Spoken Word/Visual Poetry Contest page and submit your poems now! All participants will get a special badge for participating. Can't wait to read and listen to your poems! Happy writing, friends!

One way to immerse yourself in poetry is to read poems by a variety of authors, from different places, in different styles, and in different formats. One of my absolute favourite ways to read poetry is to go to the bookstore and find a new poetry book to read. This allows me to learn so much! New authors and types of poetry, as well as publishing companies, agents, and different tools to help me in my own writing journey.

Today I wanted to highlight of of my current favourite poetry book authors, Lang Leav. Lang was born in a refugee camp and then moved to Sydney, Australia. She currently has 9 published poetry books, as well as two young adult novels and a fiction novel. I post recently had the opportunity to read her poetry novel titled “September Love”.

“September Love” was one of the first poetry books I ever purchased. I remember stumbling upon it in the poetry section at my local bookstore and feeling amazed as I skimmed through the pages.

Here is an example of Lang’s incredible poetry style:



I am constantly blown away by her powerful words and strong voice. She has a way of describing pain in a way that makes it beautiful. If you are looking for a new book of poetry to read, I highly recommend "September Love" or one of her other books. Happy reading and happy poeting to everyone participating in NaPo 2024! May we all find happiness in exploring and writing together!

Plume is one of the co-crew leaders of the Poetry Crew, and one of the mods responsible for hosting NaPo this year! For their poetry thread, they are tackling a unique challenge of writing and presenting poems in two languages: French and English found in her thread raison d'être. I made an attempt at writing some second-language poetry, back when I was learning Hebrew and Greek a few years ago, but have never seen someone try to tackle a whole thread in this way, so I interviewed @Plume for some additional perspective on their NaPo challenge this month!



Plume: I've been taking French for about eight or so years now and I actually finally got to go to Paris with my mother during my spring break in March; something about being there while also being enrolled in a French class this semester made me want to take the leap and try and challenge myself!



Plume:I think it adds a layer of fun depth and interest to the poem; it gives it almost a global sense. I also like how it's slightly contradictory; in a sense, it's made more accessible since more people can understand it, but they understand less of it overall (unless they speak both languages). I also think it almost elevates what you're able to do with the actual language of the poem; you can kind of use each language to point out the other's little peculiarities that make them so fascinating!



Plume: One thing I've wanted to do this NaPo but haven't yet is write a poem in both French and English; I did it once with les écureuils sont morts but for some reason this time around when I shift into "French brain" I can't really think about both languages at once. Hopefully I'll have enough brainpower sometime during the rest of the month to check off that goal, though!



Plume: Most of my poems have been pretty simplistic and straightforward this month, but translating them has been a little tricky, just because there are always some nuances when going from one language to another since there aren't always 1-to-1 equivalents. I actually wrote a poem about one of my least favorite French words to translate which is the idea of home; I feel like in English it conveys so much more than just a house, whereas both French words (la maison and chez moi/lui/nous etc) all feel rooted in the place rather than the feeling.



Plume: My poetic style in French is a lot different than it is in English! Because it is a second language for me, my vocabulary is much more limited than that of native speakers, so I tend to rely more on enjambment, punctuation, and sound device usage in my poems in French rather than doing things with wordplay or trying to come up with new turns of phrase in English poetry like I normally do.

For a more silly take-away, French is really great for writing in that lowercase aesthetic™ since they have a lot less rules about capitalization than English.



Plume: I'm fairly partial to my first poem (it's too hard to just pick one line), particularly the ending—I'm pretty pleased that I was able to preserve some of the fun wordplay and extended comparisons in French poetry that I like including when I write in English!



Plume: Don't be afraid to give it a shot! Even if it feels like you don't know a lot, I promise, you know more than you think. Also, reading poetry in the language is so helpful in seeing just what can be done along with broadening your poetic vocab since they don't exactly prioritize teaching that when you start learning a language.

Here's how it works... A villanelle is a highly structured poetic form that uses the three poetry "R's" ... repetition, rhyme, and rhythm!

@Rydia wrote:The Villlanelle works around two repeated lines and a regular rhyme scheme of aba aba until it reaches the final stanza, where it becomes abaa.

In it’s basic form it is 19 lines in length, represented as: a1-b-a2/a-b-a1/a-b-a2/a-b-a1/a-b-a2/a-b-a1-a2

Here, a1 and a2 are always the same line and every line with an a must follow the a rhyme scheme, while every line with a b must follow the b rhyme scheme. For example, if line a1 ends in hot, then the other a lines may end in not, pot, dot etc.

An optional rule of the Villanelle is that every line must be written in Iambic Pentameter.

[right]Poetic Forms - The Villanelle

EXAMPLE: 2018 Writing Olympics by alliyah

Please tell me the purpose that a star serves, A1
it’s the question I always seem to chase. b
I want more than far beauty to observe. A2

I want more than mirage of optic-nerves, a
and more than temporal lights in this case. b
Please tell me the purpose that a star serves. A1

Maybe You saw the Earth and drew a curve a
across the night sky, marking heaven’s trace. b
I want more than far beauty to observe. A2

Did a lost secret and a promise merge? a
Did hairs of the sun escape into space? b
Please tell me the purpose that a star serves. A1

How could our lives and the stars be preserved a
in the same chunk of this vast, varied place? b
I want more than far beauty to observe. A2

I’ll ask once more, it’s more than I deserve, a
but I have faith a God of stars gives grace. b
Please tell me the purpose that a star serves, A1
I want more than far beauty to observe. A2

Pro Poet-Tip! While traditionally iambic pentameter is used in this form, if that stresses you out, give it a try without iambic pentameter for your first try! Also really spend some time brainstorming your end rhyme words before jumping in... if you pick really bad end-rhyme words, you'll have a tough time keeping them going!

Here's are some favorites...
The Puppeteer by @Rydia
The Falling Sky by @Aley
a lie for two, a life of rue by @Spearmint ('24 NaPo Highlight!)
How I Wish I Weren't that Pitiful by @AmayaStatham ('24 NaPo Highlight!)
Break Up Vinyl by @WeepingWisteria ('24 NaPo Highlight!)

Feel like giving it a try? If you want to give your Villanelle Writing some practice on YWS you could share your results in the Villanelle KB article here. I initially learned how to write villanelles by reading this nice article by Rydia for the 2018 YWS Olympics and have love the form ever since!