I really enjoy taking part in the National Poetry Writing Month 30-day challenge. The idea is to write a new poem every day for 30 consecutive days. I’ll have to admit that I usually don’t manage to write 30 brand new poems during that time, but I do manage to write a lot. It’s great fun. Some years I’ve used the national prompts that are listed on the site I’ve linked to below. But other years, I’ve gone my own direction entirely. One year, I did only cinquain and wrote a new one each day.
This year I’m probably not going to work with the prompts because, frankly, I’m not sure I can stay with the program for the whole month this time. Other things are challenging my time and attention. But I’m at least going to jump in and get started. If you are a poet — or even if you’d just like to try your hand at poetry for the first time — you might want to check out the host site for the NaPoWriMo challenge at this link:
Let’s get started and have some fun. My poem for day 1 is below, and in since I’m almost to the end of the day already, I’m taking the easy way out and resorting to cinquain — but at least I’m offering 3 stanzas. 🙂
CAUGHT BY SURPRISE
It’s here!
NaPoWriMo!
It caught me by surprise.
But I can trust my old standby:
Cinquain.
It’s short,
And sometimes sweet.
But when my syllables
Don’t add up right, I get a bit
Stymied.
Today
I’m doing fine.
I’m finding words that fit.
So my verse for day one I can
Submit.
POETRY BY AHYOKA 