February Poetry Adventure

An invitation to play and connect

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You can find all the February Poetry Adventure 2024 prompts here.

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You’re invited to come on a writing adventure!

For the past two years, I’ve hosted #FebruaryPoetryAdventure on Instagram — an invitation to write a poem each day in February. We start our third Adventure in a little less than two weeks and this will be my first time bringing it to Substack. (I’m very excited!)

This writing adventure means a lot to me because it showed up at just the right time in my life. So too have all the people who’ve joined me on the journey. I’m excited to share it here because you folks I’m meeting in the Substack community seem awesome. And I hope this writing adventure finds you just when you need it too.

But first, a little background…

Almost exactly two years ago I was sitting in my living room, eating chocolate, staring out at the grey sky, and feeling more than a little blah.

Of course the weather was depressing, and the post holiday let-down was playing its part. But, so too was the reality of the last few years of a world pandemic. The friendships that had slipped away, the regular activities that were no longer, and the general divisiveness of everything I was reading and seeing on social media. To top it all off, I had lost my beloved dog a few months prior. Her brother had preceded her to the summerlands a few years earlier, and now our house felt like a strange empty land.

And, for some reason — it was probably the dark chocolate high I was riding — the only thing I could come up with as a way to brighten the day (and the upcoming month) was an Instagram writing challenge. Which I quickly changed from ‘challenge’ to ‘Adventure’ since it felt more inviting and fun — because I think the words we use shape our experience. So, #FebruaryPoetryAdventure was born.

Now, let me be honest: I do not consider myself a poet. I leave that title to my partner,

Adam Lombard

, and the numerous other poets whose work I read and love. I write fantasy, sci-fi, and spicy romance. I do however consider myself a crying-on-my-bed-and-nothing-else-can-help-so-I-write-down-a-poem person. (Adam insists this is being a poet. But, of course, that’s what a real poet would say.😉) I’ve done this bed-poem thing for decades. But most of my writing time is spent telling stories. So why a poetry adventure? I honestly don’t know. It just felt… like it was the right thing at the right time.

And it was.

Twenty-eight poems later, I had a newfound respect and sense of compassion for myself as a writer. As a person who shows up. And I had massive respect and compassion for the other adventurers who had participated. I realized, that for me, it was actually both adventure and challenge. And that’s why it felt so good. Because I had grown. Because I had stretched. And because I had something to show for it all. I had twenty-eight poems that were tiny snippets of my soul. And I had brave, new adventuring friends.

Thank you to all of you who have participated in the past, and I’m looking forward to the group that will be adventuring together this year. :)

On To The Adventure!

Here is where I invite you to join me. Being fairly new to Substack I’ve only just begun to explore it, but it seems to me this is the perfect place to bring this Adventure.

And, before you go telling yourself ‘I’m not a poet’, or ‘I could never share my poems’, or ‘Twenty-eight poems? Wait?! Twenty-nine poems, because this is a leap year!’ take a moment to read on. If you are the slightest bit curious, or want to invite some play into your creativity, or maybe even just know someone else who might find this interesting, let yourself skim over these very, very loose guidelines:

1. I will post a Note every day with the optional prompt. I will also have a post here, on Petra Glyphs, that I will update every day with the prompt.

2. Write a poem, whatever kind you like. It doesn’t have to match anyone else’s definition of what a poem is. One line, three, twenty, whatever. Rhyme, or not. Serious or goofy. Let yourself play.

3. You can absolutely keep the poem to yourself. You have still succeeded in your adventure!

4. Or you can share your poem (or a link to it) in a comment on the daily corresponding prompt Note. (I can’t wait to see what you all create!)

5. You can even miss a day! Or two, or ten, and still pop back in. Adventures have pit-stops. Do what is right for you. This isn’t supposed to be painful. It’s supposed to be exploratory and hopefully even fun. 😀 (And feel free to join in at any point along the Adventure.)

6. As far as community guidelines, I simply ask that if you choose to share a poem, please keep it free from hate speech and excessive violence. (This is the one firm guideline.) Let’s leave room for each of us to have our own viewpoints, our own experiences, and most of all, lead with respect and understanding that we are each on our own journey.

It would be awesome for this to continue to build community, so, whether you share some poems or not, I’d love if you hop into the comments section of the daily Note and give people some love and encouragement.

If you want to participate on Instagram as well, you can use #FebruaryPoetryAdventure to add your poems to the small, but growing collection. (Most of the poems over the last two years are posted by private accounts, but you’ll find a few at that link.) And you can find me @Petraglyphs there, too.

I’m really excited to be able to share this with yet another community of writers, creatives, and explorers. And yes, this year is a leap year. So we’ll have twenty-nine days to play with poetry. 

Are you in? I’d love to adventure with you!

Love you, Petra ❤️

P.S. Feel free to drop any questions in the comments. And tag someone you think might enjoy this as well.

P.P.S. You can find all the February Poetry Adventure prompts here.

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