In front of the John Lennon Wall in Prague.




Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Slice of Life: NaPoWriMo


Hello Slice of Life community! Happy National Poetry Month!

This is my third year of participating in NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month.  The goal is to write a poem every day for the entire month. This year, coming right off the Slice of Life Story Challenge in March, I wasn't sure I'd make it all through April this year so I decided not to post every poem as I did last year. It turns out my instincts were correct. So far, I've done fairly well but have missed a couple of days. Since sharing is part of the fun, I joined a private Facebook group with a several of my friends. We're posting our almost-daily poems and commenting on them. Because it's private, the pressure is off. They will still like me if I don't show up every day. 

Writing a poem a day means quite a few mediocre poems, but once in a while there's a keeper that could turn into something significant. And sometimes, there is something that is just plain fun.  For Day 10, the prompt was to write a poem based on the titles of books taken from my bookshelf. Since I have a stack of poetry books sitting next to my writing chair, I decided to use the titles of those books. Here's what came from them:

Ask Me
Dear Girl
How to Read a Poem
it is
Difficult Fruit
this Crazing
of The Human Line
Ordering the Storm
Like a Beggar
The Sharp Edges of Knowing
blurred with
Smoky Inky
Felicity
it is the
Taste
and Shift
Small Things:
Owls and other Fantasies
flying like angel
Ariel sending out her
Cry of the Nightbird


I thought this could be a great prompt to use with students. If you try it in your classroom, I'd love to see the results. Happy writing.