Posts

April 30th: Palinode

-
Escapril prompt #30:  "Do you hear that?” Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #30:  "I saw your ghost on a train downtown.” Napowrimo :  Well, we knew it would come to this, what with the inexorable march of time and all. Today is the final day of Na/GloPoWriMo. Thank you all for joining the challenge during this, its twentieth year! We’ll be back tomorrow with our final featured participant and some housekeeping information, as we prepare to go back into our long sleep (like   Robert Frost’s woodchuck ) until next spring. But for now, here’s our daily featured participant is  Farah Lawal Harris , who responded to Day 29’s food-based prompt with a paean to Nigerian cooking. Our final daily resource is a pair of podcasts:  Wacky Poem Life , sponsored by the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry (yes, there is a Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry!), and  Haiku Chronicles , a podcast focused on haiku and related poetic forms. And now for our last prompt of the year...
Comments
Read more

April 30th: Palinode

-
Escapril prompt #30:  "Do you hear that?” Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #30:  "I saw your ghost on a train downtown.” Napowrimo :  Well, we knew it would come to this, what with the inexorable march of time and all. Today is the final day of Na/GloPoWriMo. Thank you all for joining the challenge during this, its twentieth year! We’ll be back tomorrow with our final featured participant and some housekeeping information, as we prepare to go back into our long sleep (like   Robert Frost’s woodchuck ) until next spring. But for now, here’s our daily featured participant is  Farah Lawal Harris , who responded to Day 29’s food-based prompt with a paean to Nigerian cooking. Our final daily resource is a pair of podcasts:  Wacky Poem Life , sponsored by the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry (yes, there is a Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry!), and  Haiku Chronicles , a podcast focused on haiku and related poetic forms. And now for our last prompt of the year...
Comments
Read more

April 29th: Food or Meal as a Person

-
Escapril prompt #29:  "Changed opinion.” Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #29:  " Nothing feels like home .” Napowrimo :  Hello, everyone, and happy End-of-Na/GloPoWriMo Eve. Our featured daily participant is  A Writer Without Words , where the “index” poem for Day 28 doesn’t just give us index entries for something delicious, but does so in abecedarian fashion. Today’s featured resource is Brevity Magazine’s archive of  craft essays . And here’s our daily (optional) prompt. Start by reading Alberto Rios’s poem “ Perfect for Any Occasion .” Now, write your own two-part poem that focuses on a food or type of meal. At some point in the poem, describe the food or meal as if it were a specific kind of person. Give the food/meal at least one line of spoken dialogue. Happy writing!
Comments
Read more

April 28th: *Sustenance Day* Index Poem or Ten Lies

-
Escapril prompt #28:  "A misunderstanding."  Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #28:  "Ain't no peace like peace of mind." Sustenance:   Today’s prompt (optional, as always). This prompt is from  Daisy Fried , and the basic idea is to write a ten-line poem in which each line is a lie. Your lies could be silly, complicated, tricky, or obvious. To warm up, read https  The White Lie  by Don Paterson. Napowrimo :  Just three days left in Na/GloPoWriMo 2023! Today’s featured participant is  Jacquelyn Markham , who brings us a bouquet of yellow celosias in response to Day 27’s “Blank of Blank” prompt. And for today’s resource, we have another book and two chapbooks published by Na/GloPoWriMoers, featuring poems written during the challenge. For our book, we have  Bruce Niedt ‘s collection,  In the Bungalow of Colorful Aging . And for our chapbooks, here’s Lorraine Whelan’s  Home Sweet Home Goodbye  and Nina Lewis’s  Fragile...
Comments
Read more

April 27th: The Blank of Blank

-
Escapril prompt #27:  "Escape artist.” Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #27:  "Teach me how to fall in love with someone new.” Napowrimo : Happy Thursday, everyone, and happy twenty-seventh day of Na/GloPoWriMo. Today, our featured participant is  Veruugal , who brings us a moving elegy in response to Day 26’s “what’s in a name?” prompt. For a little more context, see the comment  here . As today’s featured resource, we have another duo of books written by Na/GloPoWriMoers, and featuring work first drafted during Na/GloPoWriMo. First, here’s Victoria Doerper’s  What if We All Bloomed?: Poems of Nature, Love, and Aging , and next, Mirjana M’s  Colour Me in Cayenne & Chlorine . And now for our daily prompt (optional, as always). Today, begin by reading Bernadette Mayer’s poem “ The Lobelias of Fear .” Now write your own poem titled “The ________ of ________,” where the first blank is a very particular kind of plant or animal, and the second blank i...
Comments
Read more

April 26th: Portrait Poem

-
Escapril prompt #26:  "Repetition.” Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #26:  "Sad twist of fate” Napowrimo :  Welcome back for Day Twenty-Six of Na/GloPoWriMo, everybody. Our featured participant for the day is  Joe Hesch , where the love poem for Day 25 is full of dreamy, surreal similes. And now, here’s a new pair of books published by Na/GloPoWriMoers, featuring poems written during the yearly challenge. First up, we have longtime participant  Gloria D. Gonsalves ’ book  Let’s Go Walking in the Storm , and next,  Dawn Anderson ’s book  World Stamp-Poems . Both Gloria and Dawn actually have several poetry collections featuring work first written during Na/GloPoWriMo. Check out their websites to see more! Our (optional) prompt for day asks you to write a portrait poem that focuses on or plays with the meaning of the subject’s name. This could be a self-portrait, a portrait of a family member or close friend, or even a portrait of a famous or hist...
Comments
Read more

April 25th: Love poem in the style of e.e.c.

-
Escapril prompt #25:  "Motel.” Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #25:  "Not trying to sound emotional.” Napowrimo :  Happy 25 th  day of Na/GloPoWriMo, all! Today’s featured participant is  Anna Enbom , who reminds us, in response to Day 24’s “review” prompt, that art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. As we close out our twentieth year, the featured resources for the next few days will take the form of books and chapbooks published by Na/GloPoWriMoers, featuring work first drafted as part of the Na/GloPoWriMo challenge. First, up, we have  Vince Gotera ’s book  The Coolest Month  and  Elizabeth Boquet ’s collection of new and selected poems,  Galoshes . Last but not least, here’s our (optional) prompt for the day. Begin by reading e e cummings’ poem [ somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond ]. This is a pretty classic love poem, so well-known that it has spawned  at least one silly meme . Today’s prompt challenges...
Comments
Read more

April 24th: *Sustenance Day* 20 Questions or Poetic Review

-
Escapril prompt #24:  "Fear."  Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #24:  "I'm a mistake and an earthquake." Sustenance:   Please read Billy Collin's poem " Questions about Angels " and use it for a springboard for today's prompt. Today’s prompt (optional, as always) is a little something I’m calling “Twenty Questions.” The idea is to write a poem in which every sentence, except for the last one, is in the form of a question. That’s it! It can be as long or short as you like. The questions can be deep and philosophical (‘what is the meaning of life?’) or routine and practical (‘are you going to eat that?’). Or both! Napowrimo :  Wow! I’m finding it hard to believe this, but as of today, there’s just a week left in Na/GloPoWriMo 2023. Our featured participant today is  Quest for Whirled Peas , where the response to Day 23’s multi-part poem prompt has a lovely, haiku-like sense of present-ness.: Today, our daily resource is  this very strange website ...
Comments
Read more

April 23rd: In Dialogue / Places

-
Escapril prompt #23:  "Mask.” Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #23:  "You love me better than I love myself.” Napowrimo : Welcome back, everyone, for Day 23 of Na/GloPoWriMo. Our featured participant for the day is  Moment of November , which inverts Emily Dickinson’s “My Nosegays are for Captives” into a lovely verse that takes roses as its starting point. Our daily resource is  African Poems , a website devoted to presenting poetry from Africa, with an emphasis on making oral poetry available to a wide audience through recordings. Finally, here’s our optional prompt for the day! Start off by reading Arvind Krishna Mehrotra’s “ Lockdown Garden .” Now, try to write a poem of your own that has multiple numbered sections. Attempt to have each section be in dialogue with the others, like a song where a different person sings each verse, giving a different point of view. Set the poem in a specific place that you used to spend a lot of time in, but don’t spend time...
Comments
Read more

April 22nd: Newly Broken Dickinson

-
Escapril prompt #22:  "Out the window.” Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #22:  "Can you tell me when the growing pains stop?” Napowrimo : Happy Saturday, all, and happy twenty-second day of Na/GloPoWriMo. I just couldn’t choose one featured participant for the day, so we have two, both providing responses to Day 20’s “abstraction” prompt. First up is  Salovie , with a mysterious meditation on the desert, and second,  Christine Smart , with a brief lyric centered on spring blooms. Today’s featured resource is the  Open House  poetry radio program. On each program, hosts  Cornelius Eady  and  Patricia Spears Jones  interview poets about their new and recent work. You can listen online, or live every Friday on  NYC’s WBAI . Today’s prompt (optional, as always, and taken from our archives) is a variation on a teaching exercise that the poet  Anne Boyer  uses with students studying the work of Emily Dickinson. As you may...
Comments
Read more

April 21st: *Sustenance Day* Kenning or Short-Lined Poem w/ Invented Word

-
Escapril prompt #21:  "An average day."  Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #21:  "Every other night is an existential crisis." Sustenance:   Our optional prompt for today is to write a poem that contains at least one  kenning . Kennings were metaphorical phrases developed in Nordic sagas. At their simplest, they generally consist of two nouns joined together, which imaginatively describe or name a third thing. The phrase “whale road,” for example, could be used instead of “sea” or “ocean,” and “sky candle” could be used for “sun.” The kennings used in Nordic sagas eventually got so complex that you basically needed a decoder-ring to figure them out. And Vikings being Vikings, there tended to be  an awful lot of kennings  for swords, warriors, ships, and gold. But at their best, they are surprising and evocative. I hope you have fun trying to invent your own. Happy writing! For inspiration, read Franny Choi's  Second Mouth  or  The Oven ...
Comments
Read more

April 20th: Object in Retrospect

-
Escapril prompt #20:  "Radio.” Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #20:  "There's a girl in me that misses us.” Napowrimo : As of today, we’re 2/3 of the way through Na/GloPoWriMo. I hope you feel like you’re on the downhill slope, coasting towards thirty days of successful poetic endeavor! Our featured participant today is  Catching Lines , where aliens and bears are only some of the remembered terrors provided in response to Day 19’s prompt. Today’s poetry resource is a little discussion about poetry in bookstores. There are plenty of bookstores around with good poetry sections (two of my favorites are  Bridge Street Books  in Washington, DC and  Gulf of Maine Books  in Brunswick, Maine). But did you know that there are also a handful of bookstores that only sell poetry? Check out Boston’s  Grolier Poetry Bookshop ,  Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop , and Seattle’s  Open Books . And now for our (optional) prompt, once more taken from ou...
Comments
Read more

April 19th: What Haunts Us

-
Escapril prompt #19:  "Muscle memory.” Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #19:  "A lot of texts I never sent.” Napowrimo :  Happy Wednesday, everyone, and happy nineteenth day of Na/GloPoWriMo. Today’s featured participant is  Elizabeth Burnam Poetry , where the abecedarian poem for Day 18 goes all the way down the alphabet and then all the way back up, while mocking corporate discourse.  For today’s daily resource I’d like to share this article about  poetry and TikTok . When I first started writing poetry seriously, blogs were the big thing. That was twenty-five years ago, and now there’s  poetry Twitter and  poetry on Instagram  and, yes, as new technology builds atop the old,  poetry on TikTok . And without further ado, here’s our daily (optional) prompt. For this challenge, start by reading Marlanda Dekine’s poem “ My Grandma Told Stories or Cautionary Tales .” One common feature of childhood is the monsters. The ones under the bed ...
Comments
Read more

April 18th: Abecedarian / Being Playful

-
Escapril prompt #18:  "What's ____ got to do with it?"  Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #18:  "Leaving the door open" Napowrimo :  Welcome back, everyone, for Day Eighteen of Na/GloPoWriMo. Today, our featured participant is  words & words , where you’ll find a lovely reminiscence on reeds and the wind in response to Day 17’s prompt inviting you to play with repetition and with correspondences between human life and the natural world. Our daily resource is the YouTube channel of Harvard’s  Woodberry Poetry Room . Here, you can check out more than 100 videos of poetry readings, lectures, and discussions. There’s much to explore! Finally, here’s our prompt for the day, once again taken from our archives and, as always, optional. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write an abecedarian poem – a poem in which the word choice follows the words/order of the alphabet. You could write a very strict abecedarian poem, in which there are twenty-six words in alp...
Comments
Read more

April 17th: *Sustenance Day* Replacement & Precision

-
Note from Amanda: Hi friends, I got some bad news about a week ago and am leaving early Tuesday morning to see a family member in the hospital with my brother in Texas. It's a quick trip that was scheduled very last minute, and I may be more quiet than usual in this space over the next few days, but I did just manage to log in from my iPad, so it’s coming with me, and I’ll post with it from the hotel. Anyway, just wanted to warn y'all. If there are any issues, I’ll be tagging Miranda in. <3  Escapril prompt #17:  "The Horror!"  Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #17:  "apple tree blues." Sustenance:   Let's read this   poem   by Chen Chen to warm up.  Now, today’s (optional) prompt is a “replacement” poem. Pick a common noun for a physical thing, for example, “desk” or “hat” or “bear,” and then pick one for something intangible, like “love” or “memories” or “aspiration.” Then Google your tangible noun, and find some sentences using it. Now, rep...
Comments
Read more

April 16th: Negation

-
Escapril prompt #16:  "language."  Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #16:  "When did I grow up?" Napowrimo :  Happy Sunday, everyone, and welcome back for the sixteenth day of Na/GloPoWriMo. Our featured participant today is  7eyedwonder , who brings us a sly take on an old French teacher in response to Day 15’s invitation to consider troubling heroes. Today’s resource is  Poetry Northwest ’s online collection of  essays  exploring different poets, craft elements, and styles of poetry. And now, without further ado, our optional daily prompt, once again pulled from our archives. Today’s prompt is a poem of negation – yes (or maybe, no), I challenge you to write a poem that involves describing something in terms of what it is not, or not like. For example, if you chose a whale as the topic of your poem, you might have lines like “It does not settle down in trees at night, cooing/Nor will it fit in your hand.” Happy writing!
Comments
Read more

April 15th: Supposed Goodness

-
Escapril prompt #15:  "superstition."  Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #15:  "collapsing stars." Napowrimo : Today marks the halfway point of Na/GloPoWriMo – I hope you and your poems are going strong! You all really hit it out of the park yesterday, with your parodies and satires in response to Day 14’s prompt. I couldn’t choose just one — so we have two featured participants today. First up is  Poem Dive , with a paean to the ubiquitous smartphone, and second,  Orangepeel , with a timely grouse about the Internal Revenue Service (for those of you elsewhere, April 15 is traditionally the day that annual tax returns are due in the United States). Today’s resource is  Where to Submit , a feature of  Heavy Feather Review . Updated every few months, this is a good resource for open calls for submission for journals, anthologies, chapbooks, presses, fellowships, and other poetry-related opportunities. Finally, here’s our (optional) prompt for the d...
Comments
Read more

Popular posts from this blog

April 1st: Poets, Start Your Engines

-
April 1 is finally here, and with it comes Na/GloPoWriMo. Huzzah! Our first featured participant is  Flipped Serendipity , where the “fun fact” early-bird poem draws attention to something many of us experience when starting a challenge like NaPoWriMo — even if you feel very enthusiastic about the project, it can be hard to push yourself out of your rut and really get writing. But the first step to shaking the rust off your verse is to get something down on the page. And having done these thirty-day-challenges many times, I can say that it does get easier as you go. Speaking of featured participants, one of the ways we find them is through the comments on each day’s post. Don’t know where to find those? Just click on the title to the day’s post, and it will take you to a new page featuring just that post, and a comment section. Many folks paste links to their daily efforts there, or if they don’t have websites, copy out the poems themselves. The conversation between participants in...
Read more

April 30th: Palinode

-
Escapril prompt #30:  "Do you hear that?” Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #30:  "I saw your ghost on a train downtown.” Napowrimo :  Well, we knew it would come to this, what with the inexorable march of time and all. Today is the final day of Na/GloPoWriMo. Thank you all for joining the challenge during this, its twentieth year! We’ll be back tomorrow with our final featured participant and some housekeeping information, as we prepare to go back into our long sleep (like   Robert Frost’s woodchuck ) until next spring. But for now, here’s our daily featured participant is  Farah Lawal Harris , who responded to Day 29’s food-based prompt with a paean to Nigerian cooking. Our final daily resource is a pair of podcasts:  Wacky Poem Life , sponsored by the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry (yes, there is a Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry!), and  Haiku Chronicles , a podcast focused on haiku and related poetic forms. And now for our last prompt of the year...
Read more

April 9th: Sonnets

-
Escapril prompt #9:  "Advertisement."  Angelea Lowes'   prompt  #9:  "Everywhere I go, I bring the rain." Napowrimo: Welcome back for the ninth day of Na/GloPoWriMo, fellow poets! Our daily participant is  To Create . . .  where Day Eight’s “twenty projects” prompt resulted in a breathtakingly claustrophobic family memory. But I also want to give a shout-out to all of you who stuck with the prompt! I know that it was a lot. Today’s poetry resource is  UbuWeb,  a vast repository of the avant-garde. You could get lost for days among the films, audio recordings, PDFs of small press publications, and other oddities here. If you’re looking to have the top of your head screwed off (figuratively), check out the “ 365 Days Project .” Finally, here’s our prompt for the day (as always, optional). We’re calling today Sonnet Sunday, as we’re challenging you to write in what is probably the most robust poetic form in English. A traditional sonnet is 14 li...
Read more