NaNoWriMo

Happy November!
from Regina Gort

It's time for NaNoWriMo and don't pretend you don't know it's an annual (November) novel writing project that brings together professional and amateur writers from all over the world.

I am so guilty of signing up, living the hype and then failing, miserably failing. Although they'd like to tell you that even participating is a big deal, I always felt like a failure. 

So this year I am setting myself up for success. I have made a commitment to write a poem a day. And I know that goal may seem lofty but I have set up a fool proof way to do so. Every morning I read a poem, that's something I have been doing for long enough that it's a habit. So this month after I read my poem, I will write one. I will use the poem as a prompt and see what happens. More than likely I will get a whole of bad poetry but even if I get one killer line out of the whole month then it's worth it.  Maybe I will even share some. Even if poetry isn't your genre, I encourage you to make a commitment to your art this month and write everyday.


Today's poem from a the book The Afterlives of Trees by Wyatt Townley

Striptease

It takes a lifetime

to shed our skin.

Take a lesson:

The snake slides out

the maple shakes off its propellers

and hair by hair we follow

like Hansel and Gretel

dropping what we can.

The cicada sings

only after leaving

its shell on the tree

just as the poem

unwinds down the page

losing its earrings,

its shoes on the stairs.