It's National Poetry Month. Send us your mini poems

Updated April 22, 2022 at 10:25 PM ET

Every April, we ask our audience to help us celebrate National Poetry Month by writing their own poems. Whether you're an amateur or an award-winning poet, we want your haikus, your odes, your unconventional prose.

Here's how it works: Share your original poem to Twitter or TikTok using the hashtag #NPRPoetry. The original rules apply: Tweets must be 140 characters or less; TikTok videos can't be longer than 15 seconds. Our favorites will be featured both on-air and online.

Now, we understand that, like all writing, poetry — even the idea of it — can seem intimidating at first. But there's no reason it should be. Need some inspiration to get started?

Donovan Beck, whose poems have attracted millions of views on TikTok, tells NPR about a simple practice he keeps to spark his creativity.

Grab a notebook and go on a walk, he says. "Go out dedicatedly for 30 minutes or so. Just start taking notes on things that you notice around, and then take this back to your editing space." At that point, Beck says, you'll likely find ideas in your scribbles that you can expand on.

"I think poets are just people who take notes on the universe," he says.

All month, we'll be updating this page to feature a sampling of your miniature poems. Here are some of our favorites so far, mixed in with others handpicked by working poets who spoke to NPR's All Things Considered this National Poetry Month.

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