NaPoWriMo 2011: If April was for writing, then May is for revising.

For NaPoWriMo 2011, I wrote 9 poems more than I did last year for a total of 17. I have 8 more in draft that I will finish at some point. Too much went on in April for me to dedicate to finishing a poem everyday but like last year, I’m glad I did this writing exercise anyway.

I’m anxious to revise a few of the poems. I had sent out 7 for publication and already 3 of them have been rejected. This was probably the first time I felt bad about a rejection but it also reminds me that I didn’t work on any of those poems like I should. I didn’t edit much.

For some, the end result was to write at least 30 poems no matter what. I had the same thought but that long ago stopped being my objective. I don’t feel I failed in this challenge. As cliché as it may be, it was never about quantity but about quality. I don’t think I could have written broken contrived lines, posted it and called it poetry the entire month. Not all were gems. I will agree some poems were written for the sake of checking off a prompt. I am happy to say though I’m actually proud of a handful of poems I completed this year.

I hope everyone else participating had a successful NaPoWriMo 2011 and enjoyed National Poetry Month.

Sometimes I just don’t get inspired by a prompt

“I talk half the time to find out my own thoughts, as a school-boy turns his pockets inside out to see what is in them. One brings to light all sorts of personal property he had forgotten in his inventory.”
— Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Poet at the Breakfast Table

For Poetic Asides the prompt is to make the title “Don’t ____, ____” and I’m not feelin’ it.

The challenge this month is to write a poem each day, not struggle with a prompt you can’t work with.

From Big Tent Poetry I somewhat like the following:

1. Write about a broken window.
2. Write about something that no longer exists.
3. Write a poem with lungs in it.
4. Write a poem as though you are a fish.

From NaPoWriMo.net I somewhat like the idea of writing an ekphrastic poem based on a famous work of art.

Should I do all of them? Perhaps after writing a few crap poems I’ll come up with something I like. Maybe I’ll just write about something else entirely.

Starting tomorrow!
Fingers crossed I get more than 8 poems written.

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” — Anaïs Nin

Some words to think about as I edit a bit of my writing.

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I’d just like to say THANK YOU!

I only recently figured out how to check that information on the blog stats. I don’t spend much time playing around with wordpress features.

I promise to update this blog more often especially with NaPoWriMo coming up, you’ll see more writing coming up in the next 6 weeks (crossing fingers).