Your First Poem

Write and publish in minutes

Your first poem doesn't need to be perfect. Here's the whole journey, from blank page to the Stage.

Step 1: Open the composer

• On a phone: tap the compose button on the Stage, or open More and choose Poem under Write.
• On a computer: use Compose in the sidebar.
• Anywhere: the Library's Create section has Compose (written poems) and Spoken Word (audio).

Step 2: Add a title

Give your poem a title. This is how it appears in feeds, search and lists.

Step 3: Write the poem

Write in Standard mode (rich text with formatting) or Advanced mode (plain text with line numbers). You can switch between them at any time. See "Standard vs Advanced Mode".

Step 4: Add details (optional)

The Details tab helps readers find and understand your work:

• Form: Sonnet, Haiku, Free Verse, Villanelle, Ghazal and many more.
• Style: such as Contemporary, Confessional or Experimental.
• Tags: short descriptive words such as "grief", "city" or "spring".

Step 5: Shape how it looks (optional)

The Appearance tab lets you set a background colour or image, a text colour, a font, alignment and an optional soundtrack. Less is often more.

Step 6: Check your settings

The Settings tab controls who can see the poem (Public, Followers, Friends, a circle, or Private) and what readers can do with it: comments, reactions, margin notes, adding it to their lists, and translation. This is also where you can post anonymously, schedule the poem for later, and set its language (or leave it on auto-detect). When you publish publicly, you'll be asked to confirm that you understand the poem will be visible to everyone.

Step 7: Publish or save

Choose Publish to share it now, or Save Draft to finish later.

The settling window

After you publish, your poem has a short settling period (currently 30 minutes) for last-minute fixes to the title and text. When it ends, the text locks, and margin notes and critiques open. Settings, warnings and appearance stay editable for good.