For some people, lazy, or busy-with-everything-else-like-work-so-barely-able-to-write-poems-every-day poets, such as myself, NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo is a way to kick us into gear and get us into the mindset of writing regularlyThe project is carried out for the love of writing poetry. In fact, Thorson’s motivation to continue is that she “just likes poems and wants to encourage people to write them.” And they most certainly have been encouraged. Fifteen years later, Thorson’s site is still going strong as word of NaPoWriMo spreads globally. More than 430 writers are now connected to and featured on her blog, with many more carrying on the project on their own. Some poets also have given it another name. GloPoWriMo, or as one may easily guess, Global Poetry Writing Month. During the project, Thorson sets optional writing prompts for participants to follow. Whether based on a theme, topic, or a form, such as a haiku, fable, ghazal, or a sonnet, anyone who wants to take a stab at it can follow the prompts or write their own. But she is not the only one who offers prompts. A few other “Poem a Day” sites and projects have become popular as well. The better known one that many poets turn to is Robert Lee Brewer’s “April PAD (or Poem-A-Day) Challenge” on his blog, Poetic Asides, at http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides. Brewer is a published poet and senior content editor for the Writer's Digest writing community. He also works as a freelance curator of an image-based poetry review for “Virginia Quarterly Review,” a US-based literary magazine. On each day of NaPoWriMo, Brewer shares his own attempt at the prompt he features. Meanwhile, Thorson features a selected participant whose poem, following the prompt of the previous day, she finds particularly enticing. The two poets also include heaps of writing advice and an interview with a poet as well as samples of that poet’s works on their blogs.
Thorson’s “Pre-Day 1” prompt on March 31 asked for a haibun: a combo of a prose poem and a haiku. The haibun was first developed as a sort of travelogue or character sketch, in which the writer first described a place in prose, and then followed that with a haiku appropriate to the place or scene.
Consequently, her “Day One” prompt featured a selected participant who had written a haibun. Thorson also shared an interview with poet Kay Ryan, whose poems are spare and tightly-rhymed. Her prompt thus asked for a Kay-Ryan-esque poem with “short, tight lines, rhymes interwoven throughout, maybe an animal or two, and, if you can manage to stuff it in, a sharp little philosophical conclusion.” Quite the challenge!
As for Brewers, he suggested a reminiscing poem. He described it as “a poem that remembers something (a moment, a relationship, etc). The poem could be kind of nostalgic or sharing lessons learned.”
If you didn’t get a chance to do your own NaPoWriMo project and missed out on April, start with today. Why not? Just sit down, pen your own 30 days of poems, one per day. Use the prompts offered by Thorson and Brewers as a guide, or follow your own.
For some people, lazy, or busy-with-everything-else-like-work-so-barely-able-to-write-poems-every-day poets, such as myself, NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo is a way to kick us into gear and get us into the mindset of writing regularly. For others, it’s a comfortable habit to slip into. For still others, simply getting through each day of the project is a challenge.
But what a gain! In 30 days, 30 poems … equivalent to the size of a typical chapbook! Imagine being able to say at the end of the month that you have written enough poems to publish a chapbook, minus the revision process. It can be done. Just go for it.Sayeeda T Ahmad is a poet. Across Oceans, her first volume of poetry, was published by Bengal Lights Books in 2016.
