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. 

Poetry Prompt

In my life right now there is little time carved out for writing. I am anticipating the return of a schedule once school starts for my girls. In the meantime I continue to journal write and find time for poetry prompt.

So here is this week's a poem by Julie Hanson from her book Unbeknownst

 First read the poem aloud. Read it a second time and write down words that you like. Or completely use her poem as a structure for your own.

Here is Julie's poem:

This will remind you of who has abandoned you;

if not, winter
will.

And this will remind you of what you forsook;

if not, spring
will.

And this will remind you of what has found you and welcomed you;

if not, summer
will.

And this will remind you of the good you withstood;

if not, fall
will.



What I like about this poem is all of the possibilities of subject matter and form. You could chose to focus on the seasons or the reminders. The point is it gives you a great jumping block into pool of your choice. I ended up writing about five versions so far.

Here's one I wrote for my husband:

This will remind you of our first date;
if not, the full moon will.

This will remind you of holding our first born;
if not, hunting chanterelles will.

This will remind you of the gains and losses;
if not, picking thimbleberries will.

And this will remind you of our future;
if not, the past will.

Group Poetry

Twice a month I attend a group poetry therapy session. I know what you are thinking, poetry therapy? In a group setting?

Basically we come together and with the help of a facilitator we write poetry. The prompts are poems that we are given to open up our writing brain. It is a pretty amazing experience.

At the last meeting our facilitator gave us a poem by Leonard Nathan entitled So? It is a poem about accepting who you are not and who you will never become but also about who you are. We were encouraged to write our own version by following the format of his poem. It is admittance of your weaknesses, the shortcomings that you have imposed on yourself. But also the acceptance of your strengths.

And it was liberating. I encourage you to do the same. Who have you always aspired to be? What have you hoped to do but know it is impossible? By writing my version of this poem, I let go some of those dreams and accepted who I am right now.

So?                                                                             So?
Leonard Nathan                                                       Regina Gort


So you aren't Tolstoy or Saint Francis                   So you aren't Jacques Cousteau or Mary Oliver
or even a well-known singer                                  or even the Queen of England,
of popular songs and will never read Greek            will probably never again read Tolstoy or
or speak French fluently,                                     speak Japanese fluently.
will never see something no one else                    You will never fly to the moon or discover
has seen before through a lens                             the missing link.
or with the naked eye.                                         You have been given the ability to love and   
You've been given just one life                              receive love.
in this world that matters                                     and more than that you can look yourself     
and upon which every other life                            straight in the eye
somehow depends as long as you live,                 and honestly say that you matter.
and also given the costly gifts of hunger,
choice, and pain with which to raise
a modest shrine of meaning.

Regina Gort