Writing Poetry For The Friendship Book

the friendship bookShutterstock / Flamingo Images©

The Friendship Book is a charming little book that we publish every year.

It features illustrated verse, reflective thoughts and country lore. A new passage for every day of the year to uplift and comfort our readers.

Unlike our other publications, The Friendship Book follows a strict template.

That means the poetry we include must adhere to specific lengths.

I’ll start reserving poetry for our 2023 edition in the next few months.

If you fancy writing a poem for inclusion, take a look at the lengths we need for each date and see if something sparks your imagination.

Intro Poem

Our all-important introductory poem is 12 lines long.

January

Date Number of lines
January 1 12 lines
January 21 12 lines
January 27 16 lines

February

Date Number of lines
February 4 12 lines
February 14 10 lines
February 25 12 lines

March

Date Number of lines
March 3 6 lines
March 12 16 lines
March 17 16 lines

April

Date Number of lines
April 5 8 lines
April 20 12 lines

May

Date Number of lines
May 1 8 lines
May 10 16 lines
May 22 10 lines
May 26 14 lines

June

Date Number of lines
June 2 14 lines
June 23 10 lines
June 28 8 lines

July

Date Number of lines
July 20 12 lines

August

Date Number of lines
August 18 16 lines
August 22 8 lines

September

Date Number of lines
October 2 16 lines
October 14 10 lines

October

Date Number of lines
October 2 16 lines
October 14 10 lines

November

Date Number of lines
November 15 10 lines
November 25 8 lines

December

Date Number of lines
December 8 12 lines
December 30 20 lines

We tend not to get too many poems submitted for the 6 and 14 line slots so I’m keen to get lots of these ahead of time!

Themes and tone

So what kind of poetry are we looking for?

The best way to get a feel of the poetry we publish in The Friendship Book, is to read a previous edition.

But a great thing to keep in mind is that we always like to leave our readers feeling uplifted.

The poetry in The Friendship Book is reflective, thoughtful and gentle. Themes include nature, faith and hope.

Remember, we also ask for poems to rhyme.

How to submit a poem

If you’ve had poems published in the “Friend” in recent years, please feel free to email your submission to me.

We’re asking that all writers who have not had a poem published by us previously, to please post your submission to our office.

The address can be found in our submissions guideline for poetry.

We are unable to make exceptions as this would not be fair to other writers waiting to hear back about their own submission.

As soon as I’m able to, I’ll return to the office to pick up all poetry submissions.


Keep an eye on the Fiction section of our website for more guides to writing poetry for our other annual publications.

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