Amid so many ominous events in the wider world, writing poetry is a small but significant way to sustain our spirits. For one last time, please share yours

Both fragile and strong, a mirror and a container – glass shares many properties with good poetry. Share your cracking verse here

A communal space offering an ever-changing view of life passing by, buses have opened windows on to the world for many poets. Share your bus verses here

From the insanity found in modern politics to the genuine tragedies of mental illness, this month we want your prose to help us find sense in the world

From the personal to the global, there is an uneasy abundance of things to be scared of at the moment. Dare you face up to some in verse?

A century after the battle of the Somme, whose awful death toll included many poets, it seems an appropriate month to write poetry of witness and shared humanity

From Louis MacNeice at the British Library to Elizabeth Bishop’s Filling Station, some poets are good at recording life’s often unnoticed settings. What do you see?

As bruising electoral battles rage on around us, it’s a good time to remember that poets can raise their voices for public causes, too. Please add your voice below

The rhythms and imagery of childhood verses have inspired poets from Robert Louis Stevenson to Elizabeth Bishop. Now it’s your turn

An unvarying theme in everyone’s lives, it has preoccupied poets – in varying ways – from Heraclitus to Gregory Corso. And now you

It’s not much practised, but there’s a strong tradition of how-to poems, from Virgil to Henry Reed. So this month it’s your turn to teach

That from which the first man was made, or the ground in which nothing grows … clay has associations with both creation and decay. Send us your poems about the sticky stuff, either way

The element of frozen hell and hopeless waters, the indifferent heart and the chill hand of loss. Thaw out your imagination and submit your ice-capped rimes

Sites of forgotten industry, secret urban networks or picturesque leisure resorts, these quiet scenes suit verse. Get on board with yours

Parodies range from the sweetly celebratory to the viciously unforgiving. So sharpen your quills – it’s time to deliver poetic justice

These most fundamental components of all writing have long fascinated poets, and spell out your challenge for September

War, poverty, and famine are driving a new wave of human migration. Please share your poems about seeking refuge

Symbols of endurance as much as transience, these remnants of another age open on to a great variety of themes. Please share what you can build from the shards of history

For Shakespeare it is an ‘ever-fixed mark’, for Larkin it is a source of cynicism and renewal. This month, vow to reflect on wedlock with all its passions, trials and tribulations

Dating back to Boccaccio, this form has been adopted by everyone from Spenser to Yeats. Now it’s your turn