Sitting Down To Write: My Thoughts On My Second Year Of #OctPoWriMo
Last year I walked into the October Poetry Writing Month (OctPoWriMo) challenge of writing 31 poems in 31 days blind. I tried to formulate a strategy that I could carry on to the next month with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) as I was beginning the challenge, but by the end, I had thrown everything out the window. I just needed to write. I had to finish.
I ended up completing the poetry writing challenge again this year. I went in with a flexible plan. Write a few poems at a time, have a theme or several that can give you ideas for poem content, and just write whenever you can. It ultimately worked. I finished on time with a few smaller hiccups along the way, but I wasn’t as frantic as I was the year before about rushing to get a certain amount of poems done on time. Yes, the task was still a big one, but things seemed to go a little smoother. (more…)
OctPoWriMo: Oct 6th, 7th, & 8th
OctPoWriMo #6: Selflessness
Above you.
You place the entire world upon your shoulders
and put all the people living on top of the blue planet
before you.
Beside you.
(more…)
#OctPoWriMo: October 4th & 5th
OctPoWriMo #4: Children
The house was always filled
to the brim with several sets
of little eyes, small mouths,
and tiny feet.
The tiny feet
(more…)
#OctPoWriMo: Rose Bushes
Last year, I participated in OctPoWriMo, a month-long poetry challenge where participants attempt to write and share one poem every day throughout the month of October. I successfully completed the challenge, but when everything was said and done, I had a pile of poems that were pretty random and didn’t gel together. Some were long, others were extremely short, and the topics had nothing to do with each other. This year I have decided to take on the challenge again but with another goal in mind. Create a more cohesive string of poems over the course of the next 31 days that will have a connected theme, and if you follow along to the end of October, then I’ll tell you what it is. (more…)
It Was Enough
I received a missed phone call while I was out in the garden. I try not to take my phone outside with me for fear of a cascading pile of rich dirt that would inevitably fall on top of the expensive device. And with drops of cool liquid from the watering canister sneakily trying to fall on to the dark dirt in a mission to make mud, I figured that I should keep my phone inside. The call was from a dear friend who had followed the missed call with a text message. It was the habit of my generation, in this day and age, to leave an intended message in the form of a text rather than one’s voice.
I picked up the smartphone and clicked the button on the side which would illuminate the screen and read the message, Hey, how is everything? (more…)
