Writing Poetry For The Friendship Book

By Abigail Phillips | Mar 20, 2021

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.

Abigail Phillips Abbie is the newest member of the fiction team at the "Friend." She loves how varied the role is - every day is different and there is always a new story to read. She is keen to work closely with established writers and discover new writers, too.