This year I've decided not to try to write a poem a day during National Poetry Month. With my third collection just out, I have April readings in Portsmouth and Bristol in the UK and Providence and Claremont in the US, and I'm just beginning a new book project with the Bath Abbey for which I've only just begun research. If you'd like to find a community to pursue NaPoWriMo, I recommend either going through the official site linked here or adapting use of Jo Bell's poem-a-week site to the poem-a-day format by using her prompts when you need outside inspiration. Feel free to reply in the comments with other sites useful for NaPoWriMo.
Showing posts with label National Poetry Month. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Poetry Month. Show all posts
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
National Poetry Writing Month: Done! (Whew!)
This afternoon I managed to write the draft for a last poem for National Poetry Month, and I'm relieved, pleased and tired. How have others done?
I enjoyed the process much more when I was on spring break; when I came back to teaching, in the final weeks of term, writing a poem a day felt like more of an assignment than an indulgence. I'm tempted to pass on it next year and do something similar in the summer instead. We'll see.
I'd be glad to hear what exercises people tried that they found most effective or successful, as I use such exercises in my teaching and try to stick to the ones that prove most useful.
Congratulations, everyone!
I enjoyed the process much more when I was on spring break; when I came back to teaching, in the final weeks of term, writing a poem a day felt like more of an assignment than an indulgence. I'm tempted to pass on it next year and do something similar in the summer instead. We'll see.
I'd be glad to hear what exercises people tried that they found most effective or successful, as I use such exercises in my teaching and try to stick to the ones that prove most useful.
Congratulations, everyone!
Wednesday, 24 April 2013
NaPoWriMo, one week to go!
Who's still doing a poem a day? (I am!) If you've fallen behind, there's still time to catch up!
Saturday, 20 April 2013
Poetry Prompts, Nos. 20-30
How did I come to feel obligated to provide a prompt for each day of National Poetry Month this year? I don't understand it, but I feel it and persist nonetheless.
20. Sandra Lim has some splendid titles in her first collection, Loveliest Grotesque. Use one of these as the title for your own poem: "Curious This"; "The Horse and Its Rider"; "Reasoning in a Raw Wind"; "Ballad of the Last Chance"; "Year of the Gallows Birds"; "You Could Feel That Freedom Coming on Too".
21. Find a photograph or online image of the place you live from at least fifty years ago, and describe the place as though you were there now.
22. Write an ode to your favourite vegetable. For inspiration, here's Pablo Neruda's "Ode to the Artichoke."
23. Think of something unpleasant that happened to you as a child--a bee sting, an embarrassment, a natural disaster, a car accident, an illness, etc.--and write about it in third person. Don't tell us how the child feels--show it through her actions, the description of the environment, etc., and don't be afraid to fictionalize what happened for the sake of the poem.
24. Look at a poem of yours that you never finished or don't feel is really working, and choose your favourite line. Using it as the opening line, write a poem that takes on a subject or direction different from the one in the original poem.
25. If you have a pet, show, in a poem, how its behaviour influences your own. Don't say what kind of animal it is anywhere in the work. Your description can identify it, or you may prefer greater ambiguity, such that the poem might apply to a number of different creatures.
26. In a place where you have lived before (or where you live now), list some specific names of the flora and fauna of that environment: the names of one or two birds; other animals (squirrels, coyotes, rabbits, etc.); one or two kinds of trees, plants and wildflowers. Now place yourself, as a character, in this environment, with one particular worry on your mind. In the poem, let the details of your concern intermingle with the details of the environment, and bring in other senses in addition to sight to give a stronger impression of the place.
27. Write a poem in response to a song. Argue or identify with the song's import as you describe a particular experience, whether real or fictional.
28. Write an anti-ode about something you don't like or an action you don't like to do. Use vivid, concrete details to make your dislike palpable without saying it.
29. Write a poem about an object that belongs/belonged to one of your parents. You might find it easier to convey the object's meaning if you describe your parent using (or whatever word's appropriate) that object in a particular moment in time.
30. Remember a song you loved as a teenager. What might you have been doing as you heard it (driving, sitting on your bed, dancing, etc.)? Describe one scene involving your younger self and the song in such a way that the reader readily discerns how the song made you feel. Again, don't be afraid to fictionalize for the sake of the poem.
That's all, folks! I'd be glad to hear whether any of these prove useful.
20. Sandra Lim has some splendid titles in her first collection, Loveliest Grotesque. Use one of these as the title for your own poem: "Curious This"; "The Horse and Its Rider"; "Reasoning in a Raw Wind"; "Ballad of the Last Chance"; "Year of the Gallows Birds"; "You Could Feel That Freedom Coming on Too".
21. Find a photograph or online image of the place you live from at least fifty years ago, and describe the place as though you were there now.
22. Write an ode to your favourite vegetable. For inspiration, here's Pablo Neruda's "Ode to the Artichoke."
23. Think of something unpleasant that happened to you as a child--a bee sting, an embarrassment, a natural disaster, a car accident, an illness, etc.--and write about it in third person. Don't tell us how the child feels--show it through her actions, the description of the environment, etc., and don't be afraid to fictionalize what happened for the sake of the poem.
24. Look at a poem of yours that you never finished or don't feel is really working, and choose your favourite line. Using it as the opening line, write a poem that takes on a subject or direction different from the one in the original poem.
25. If you have a pet, show, in a poem, how its behaviour influences your own. Don't say what kind of animal it is anywhere in the work. Your description can identify it, or you may prefer greater ambiguity, such that the poem might apply to a number of different creatures.
26. In a place where you have lived before (or where you live now), list some specific names of the flora and fauna of that environment: the names of one or two birds; other animals (squirrels, coyotes, rabbits, etc.); one or two kinds of trees, plants and wildflowers. Now place yourself, as a character, in this environment, with one particular worry on your mind. In the poem, let the details of your concern intermingle with the details of the environment, and bring in other senses in addition to sight to give a stronger impression of the place.
27. Write a poem in response to a song. Argue or identify with the song's import as you describe a particular experience, whether real or fictional.
28. Write an anti-ode about something you don't like or an action you don't like to do. Use vivid, concrete details to make your dislike palpable without saying it.
29. Write a poem about an object that belongs/belonged to one of your parents. You might find it easier to convey the object's meaning if you describe your parent using (or whatever word's appropriate) that object in a particular moment in time.
30. Remember a song you loved as a teenager. What might you have been doing as you heard it (driving, sitting on your bed, dancing, etc.)? Describe one scene involving your younger self and the song in such a way that the reader readily discerns how the song made you feel. Again, don't be afraid to fictionalize for the sake of the poem.
That's all, folks! I'd be glad to hear whether any of these prove useful.
Monday, 15 April 2013
NaPoWriMo: The Halfway Point
It's 15 April, and because of the heavy workload I have with the return to teaching, I drafted a poem this morning to make sure I'd get it done. While I have thus managed my 15 poems in 15 days and am excited by the results thus far, the end of spring break is going to make the second half of the month significantly more difficult in terms of finding writing time.
How are others doing at this point? I hope the prompts have proved helpful to those wanting outside inspiration.
How are others doing at this point? I hope the prompts have proved helpful to those wanting outside inspiration.
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Day 10!
It's day ten, and I'm happy to say I have ten quite different poems drafted. (Coincidentally, today I also completed my tenth hour of driving lessons.) I feel a little nervous saying this, but on third or fourth reading I'm pleased thus far with the results. Some are weak, sure, but I've been ambitious and risky, and the poems feel stronger for it. How are others doing?
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
More poetry prompts
To my surprise and delight, some people have been using the prompts I provided as starters for their National Poetry Month poems, and as I offered nine, I thought it time I posted some more. That is, I feel the need to continue providing such sustenance through the month. I'd be pleased to hear of people's experiences with these.
10. Write a poem in second person where the you being addressed is a specific person (rather than a general/public or reader you).
11. Remember an image that has moved you and describe it (without comment, without sentimentality) in 2-5 lines. That is the end of your poem--now write toward it.
12. Think of something you do every day, and tell someone else how to do it in step-by-step imperatives that provide close descriptive detail of the actions and any objects. Some possibilities include changing a diaper, preparing butternut squash, choosing a watermelon, and styling your hair.
13. What are you feeling right now? What are the three abstract nouns that would best describe it? Right now I might say mine would be lust, ennui, and fatigue. While the narrative of events leading to those feelings would be mundane and probably uninteresting, is there another, more condensed narrative--something that could happen in, say, ten minutes--that might convey the same combination of feelings? In a prose poem, write the narrative that helps to convey those feelings, and let the title clue the reader in to that general mood. (This was my approach with my poem 'Melancholia' in This Line Is Not for Turning: An Anthology of Contemporary British Prose Poetry.)
14. Write a poem that is an actual numbered list, and let the nature of the list come not from the title but the accumulation of details. Some possibilities include: seven regrets without named parties; five historical events I wish I'd been present for and one that I had; my experiences with everyday people in different cities I've visited.
15. Write a poem in response to something in the news, but rather than falling back on your own perspective, imagine another person's. For example, how might a former miner's child respond to the news of Thatcher's death? Or, from another angle, how might one of her advisors respond? Try to make the response nuanced, a complex of multiple emotions rather than settling for the predictable, simplistic one.
16. Write a poem that uses two or three beats/stresses per line. If unsure what to write about, take the view out of a window, starting at a distance and becoming increasingly more detailed and intimate. If you need more inspiration, dip into Basil Bunting's Briggflatts (http://carrieetter.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/basil-buntings-complete-poems.html); it's not in two-beat lines but conveys the idea of such a poem well.
17. Consider a news item you'd like to write about, and find a good-sized article about it online, preferably in a quality newspaper or journal. Take five phrases from the article that seem to sum up different points or events involved. In your poem these will be in quotation marks or italicized, and your work is to write between them.
18. Use five of the following six words in a poem: dirt, hand(s), path, tree (or a kind of tree), sky, weight.
19. Remember someone you knew now dead, and remember one of their interests or hobbies (i.e. my father was obsessed with the weather and cycling; my mother watched medical dramas and house restoration programs and used to sew). In a poem, talk to the person about it, and end with a question.
I hope these prove useful.
10. Write a poem in second person where the you being addressed is a specific person (rather than a general/public or reader you).
11. Remember an image that has moved you and describe it (without comment, without sentimentality) in 2-5 lines. That is the end of your poem--now write toward it.
12. Think of something you do every day, and tell someone else how to do it in step-by-step imperatives that provide close descriptive detail of the actions and any objects. Some possibilities include changing a diaper, preparing butternut squash, choosing a watermelon, and styling your hair.
13. What are you feeling right now? What are the three abstract nouns that would best describe it? Right now I might say mine would be lust, ennui, and fatigue. While the narrative of events leading to those feelings would be mundane and probably uninteresting, is there another, more condensed narrative--something that could happen in, say, ten minutes--that might convey the same combination of feelings? In a prose poem, write the narrative that helps to convey those feelings, and let the title clue the reader in to that general mood. (This was my approach with my poem 'Melancholia' in This Line Is Not for Turning: An Anthology of Contemporary British Prose Poetry.)
14. Write a poem that is an actual numbered list, and let the nature of the list come not from the title but the accumulation of details. Some possibilities include: seven regrets without named parties; five historical events I wish I'd been present for and one that I had; my experiences with everyday people in different cities I've visited.
15. Write a poem in response to something in the news, but rather than falling back on your own perspective, imagine another person's. For example, how might a former miner's child respond to the news of Thatcher's death? Or, from another angle, how might one of her advisors respond? Try to make the response nuanced, a complex of multiple emotions rather than settling for the predictable, simplistic one.
16. Write a poem that uses two or three beats/stresses per line. If unsure what to write about, take the view out of a window, starting at a distance and becoming increasingly more detailed and intimate. If you need more inspiration, dip into Basil Bunting's Briggflatts (http://carrieetter.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/basil-buntings-complete-poems.html); it's not in two-beat lines but conveys the idea of such a poem well.
17. Consider a news item you'd like to write about, and find a good-sized article about it online, preferably in a quality newspaper or journal. Take five phrases from the article that seem to sum up different points or events involved. In your poem these will be in quotation marks or italicized, and your work is to write between them.
18. Use five of the following six words in a poem: dirt, hand(s), path, tree (or a kind of tree), sky, weight.
19. Remember someone you knew now dead, and remember one of their interests or hobbies (i.e. my father was obsessed with the weather and cycling; my mother watched medical dramas and house restoration programs and used to sew). In a poem, talk to the person about it, and end with a question.
I hope these prove useful.
Friday, 5 April 2013
NaPoWriMo, Day 5 Progress Report
It's barely day five of National Poetry Month. I've got four poems for the four days, and I love how I feel: gratified by the completed work, excited by the variety and possibility of some quality among them, and whirring with thoughts about word choice, form, and imagery. How are others doing?
Wednesday, 3 April 2013
Prompts for Poems
I hadn't planned on providing a prompt a day, but I see that by starting out that way, I may have created that expectation. Here, then, for day 3, is a prompt I offered in 2011 that has led to some strong work. These 7 more, from last year, will cover me through day 10! I promise to offer more, or links to more, again by the eleventh.
Tuesday, 2 April 2013
Day 2: Another Prompt
My Poetry School students did so well with this exercise I invented, I thought I'd share it as a prompt for National Poetry Month.
Thinking of one event you'd like to write about--it needn't but could be personal (or historical, etc.), write a poem consisting only of questions, maximum 20 lines. Indeed, it could just be one question extended over a number of lines.
I know what gave me the idea for this exercise. Years ago, Donald Justice published a poem, "Twenty Questions," in Seneca Review, and I wrote a poem in response, "Twenty Answers," published later in the same magazine. The catch, if that's the right word, is that my answers were also questions.
If you try this approach, I'd be glad to hear of your experience with it.
Thinking of one event you'd like to write about--it needn't but could be personal (or historical, etc.), write a poem consisting only of questions, maximum 20 lines. Indeed, it could just be one question extended over a number of lines.
I know what gave me the idea for this exercise. Years ago, Donald Justice published a poem, "Twenty Questions," in Seneca Review, and I wrote a poem in response, "Twenty Answers," published later in the same magazine. The catch, if that's the right word, is that my answers were also questions.
If you try this approach, I'd be glad to hear of your experience with it.
Monday, 1 April 2013
And so National Poetry Month begins!
After all that build-up seeking fellow poets to join me in writing a poem a day, the month has arrived, and fortunately, I'm still on spring break. This time I have several projects I'd like to continue with: Gretel, 'open field' poems that tell the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale from her point of view, in third person; The Modie Box, a prose poem about my mother and her death, focused on the box file in which I keep her letters and cards to me, my letters to her, and various mementos (Modie is the first name I called her, perhaps clearer as Moddy). Additionally, I'd like to replace one of the Imagined Sons in my manuscript of the same name with a new piece, and so plan to try to write several new Imagined Sons poems. I also want to prepare a couple poems for themed contests and magazine issues, including this important competition raising money and awareness of cardiac risk in young people. I hardly need any additional inspiration to make it through the month!
But I always have ideas for poems and don't understand writer's block per se. That won't keep me, however, from offering prompts for those who find them useful. I'll start by promoting a couple of favourite forms, the pantoum and the prose poem. If you haven't written one of them, give it a go. For more on the pantoum, see this page at the Academy of American Poets; here's their page on the prose poem. On the latter, I'd also be glad if you explored my site Sudden Prose, devoted to both prose poetry and flash fiction, with many splendid examples.
What plans do others have for National Poetry Month? I'd be glad to hear.
But I always have ideas for poems and don't understand writer's block per se. That won't keep me, however, from offering prompts for those who find them useful. I'll start by promoting a couple of favourite forms, the pantoum and the prose poem. If you haven't written one of them, give it a go. For more on the pantoum, see this page at the Academy of American Poets; here's their page on the prose poem. On the latter, I'd also be glad if you explored my site Sudden Prose, devoted to both prose poetry and flash fiction, with many splendid examples.
What plans do others have for National Poetry Month? I'd be glad to hear.
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
NaPoWriMo: Done. Dusted.
In the thirty days of April, I wrote 16 independent, prose-poetry sections (of which we used 14) for the commissioned piece, "Meditations," on Peter Coker's 1958-9 painting, "Sunflowers," eight sections taken from the words of Esther Summerson's first chapter in Charles Dickens's Bleak House (I didn't realise till today I'd completed the chapter!), and five independent poems. Thus it turns out that for all my activity in April, I missed the 30 in 30 goal by one, but I'm nonetheless delighted. I think "Meditations" has turned out well (if not excellent, as I'd hoped) in spite of the time pressure I faced, I'm excited about the Bleak House project, and several of the independent poems I think are good. So hurrah! How did others fare?
Thanks to everyone who joined me. Stories of your own experiences consistently encouraged me to strive for my best and to make the most of the time, and I dearly appreciate them. Thanks so much.
Thanks to everyone who joined me. Stories of your own experiences consistently encouraged me to strive for my best and to make the most of the time, and I dearly appreciate them. Thanks so much.
Thursday, 26 April 2012
NaPoWriMo blown (sort of)
A few days ago I no longer could manage a poem a day, as the sinus infection I thought I'd conquered at the start of the month had returned. However, the intense projects I've been working on--a montage of pieces on Peter Coker's painting, "Sunflowers," for Sylph Editions and a series of poems using Esther Summerson's narration from Bleak House--mean that I have 28 pieces on day 26. I think that means I'll make 30 poems in 30 days, if not a poem a day, and I'm thrilled with that. How are others getting on?
Monday, 23 April 2012
NaPoWriMo with one week to go
Now that I'm back to work, I'm starting to struggle.... How are others doing?
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
Some NaPoWriMo prompts
My friend Kristina Close is struggling to stay with NaPoWriMo, so I've recommended one site of prompts to her and thought I'd offer some myself.
1. Write a poem about something you collect or used to collect. Focus on the rich details that distinguish the items in the collection from one another.
2. Write a 16-20-line pantoum whose opening line (and hence ending line) contains a concrete image.
3. Write a poem that begins with seeing a person who resembles someone who's dead.
4. Write a poem composed of fragments, with the odd lines focusing on a concrete scene and the even lines focusing on a metaphysical issue. (Such a poem might work best double-spaced.)
5. Write a prose poem that begins and ends with the same image.
6. Write an angry, bitter poem to someone who has wronged you, but instead of relating the events or the wrong autobiographically, think of what could metaphorically represent that same event and write about that instead. For example, if someone stole your boyfriend, perhaps she moved into your castle.
7. Write a poem using five of the following six words: errand; body; world; dusk; snow; light.
That's good for now. I'd be glad to know people's experiences of these prompts if they try them.
NapoWriMo, day 4
I've written three poems in three days, and any other month, I'd be delighted, but it's April, and this has become usual. I'm trying not to evaluate whether the three very different poems--one a nature poem in fragments, one more linear, one a prose poem--have any value, so as to stay focused on the momentum. I'd be glad to hear others' experiences....
Sunday, 1 May 2011
NaPoWriMo happily ends. And ends happily.
April is over, at last. From beginning to end, I was moving house, packing, cleaning, arranging, sorting, recycling, taking to the charity shop, tossing, lifting, carrying, giving away on Freecycle, selling on eBay, and so on. Though I rented a van on the 8th for the bulk of the move, I was going to and from, cleaning and moving, up through the 29th. But now it's done, and I've a week's holiday in Pembrokeshire, courtesy of a wonderful trade I made with a poetry student, doing everything I could toward helping her with her pamphlet in exchange for a week at her cottage. I'm hoping it was a good deal on both sides.
So doing NaPoWriMo this month was tough. For the first time I included haiku and senryu. It wasn't a conscious decision; after reading a friend's haiku book manuscript, I found haiku emerged almost daily. It was a real pleasure to be walking in my new city of Bath, see some detail in the landscape--purple wisteria two stories up the face of a Georgian terrace, a robin chattering away on a telephone wire, and have the image transform little by little into words, then a short poem. In May I mean to revisit my haiku and senryu manuscript, The Broken Kite, and see where it is and what it needs to be complete.
The other great pleasure of this attempt at NaPoWriMo was the number of responses I received here on the blog from others who'd joined me. It was great to hear from Charles, Jimmy, Alan, Karen, Linda, Jennifer, John, Aisling, Jim, Helen, Graham, Frank, Tony, Rob, Jenny, Hazel, Catherine, Joanne, Zara, Valerie, Aidan, Mike, Cat, and Kenny--thank you all so much for your posts! It was interesting and encouraging to hear about others' experiences with the challenge, and it heartened me every time somebody posted a new comment.
I think it's largely because of the active presence of the company this time that I finally did it: I got 30 poems in 30 days--there are even a few good ones. Thanks so much to all who joined me! Hurrah!
Monday, 25 April 2011
In that kitchen, a writing exercise (NaPoWriMo, day 25)
Three days of NaPoWriMo, I've begun anew an exercise I came across in a listserv's archives: Begin with "In that kitchen," continuing writing until you're stuck, and when you reach that wall, write "In that kitchen" again and continue accordingly for 10-15 minutes; this becomes the first draft of a prose poem. In my three pieces, the kitchen is always the kitchen at 220 Arlington Drive, Normal, Illinois, the kitchen I knew as my family's from the age of five, the kitchen I may not see again if the house is sold soon. I was surprised to feel how much a kitchen can be the axis of a family; I suppose ours especially, as it was connected to the garage on one side and was open to the dining room on the other. For those struggling with coming up with a poem a day, I strongly recommend the exercise and urge people to try it with the kitchen they knew in childhood: it's amazing what strands of relationships, family, place, and development arise and mingle.
Monday, 18 April 2011
NaPoWriMo, day 18
It's the eighteenth day. Some days I haven't even tried to write poetry (I just moved house), but always tried to make up for it on days I have more time, and with the help of some haiku, I'm more or less on top of it.
But tonight something interesting happened, the kind of thing I only knew I was waiting for after it occurred. An opening line arose in my mind, I said, "Oh, no, that won't work," and it became a challenge then, to make it work, to follow this very strange line. It's turned out to be quite a short poem, but the thrill of departure, of invention, excites me and makes me hope for more tomorrow.
How are others getting on? Please share your experiences, whether you've been successful at a poem a day or not. After all, the last three years I've never made it to 30 poems in 30 days.
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
NaPoWriMo, Day 13
It's day 13, and I have 11 poems. I didn't write a poem yesterday because I wrote several short poems the day before, and today so far has been consumed by teaching; I'm hopeful, though, of doing a little writing this evening. How are others doing?
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