National Poetry Month / NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2016

Hello, poets and poetry fans. It's April again, not the cruelest month as T. S. Eliot famously opined but rather time once more for NaPoWriMo and PAD — "National Poetry Writing Month" and "Poem-a-Day." As always Maureen Thorson will give out ("optional") poetry prompts at NaPoWriMo.net and Robert Lee Brewer will do the same at his Poetic Asides blog . . . the two "HQs." Here is Maureen Thorson's NaPoWriMo prompt for Day One: "Today, I challenge you to write a lune. This is a sort of English-language haiku. While the haiku is a three-line poem with a 5-7-5 syllable count, the lune is a three-line poem with a 5-3-5 syllable count. There’s also a variant based on word-count, instead of syllable count, where the poem still has three lines, but the first line has five words, the second line has three words, and the third line has five words again. Either kind will do, and you can write a one-lune poem, or write a poem consisting of multiple stanzas of lunes." And here's Robert Lee Brewer's Day One PAD prompt: "Write a foolish poem. It’s April Fool’s Day, after all. Let’s loosen up today with a poem in which we’re fools, others are fools, or there’s some kind of prank or tomfoolery happening. Fool around with it a while." You can also see Robert's sample foolish poem here. Those of you who have followed my April poems in the blog before know I always try to merge the "official" prompts. I think it was 2012 when I merged three prompts most days. Well, today's installment is pretty silly, but hey, it's a foolish poem, right? Maureen pointed out that the lune could be 5-3-5 syllables or 5-3-5 words, so I did both of those things. And also rhymed abba. Foolish Lune —with apologies to the Jackson 5 1 2 3 4 5 A B C Do re mi. We're live! —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Some of my students at the University of Northern Iowa will be writing daily poems and sharing them in the blog. Here Ven Batista gives us a lune/fool poem, deftly melding the two prompts. Untitled I play the rascal. She chokes on laughter. Old memory of new love. —Draft by Ven Batista    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] My poetry student Sarah Smith's Day One poem responds to the NaPoWriMo prompt for a lune with a short, image-rich story. Untitled Cerebral light envelops entwined bodies; kissing, grasping, gasping; when the roommate walks in. —Draft by Sarah Smith    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Another student, Jedediah Kurth, did not respond to the prompts but rather to the enterprise overall of the daily poem. Untitled Poems written for the sake of writing a poem are fundamentally different than those which tear themselves untimely from the womb of your unconscious mind, go rampaging across unresisting paper, tire themselves, then settle down to pretend they were always well-behaved. —Draft by Jedediah Kurth    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Our good friend Thomas Alan Holmes will again be sharing his daily poems with us here. He's got TWO for today! First his merging of the prompts: Alan says, "Robert Lee Brewer asked for a poem about foolishness, and Maureen Thorson asked for a 'lune,' punning aurally on 'fool,' so I have managed to comply with both." GOP Primaries, 2016 Some people would have Donald Trump for our president. —Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Here is Alan's intro for his second daily poem: "Folks, I feel kind of guilty that the combination of prompts for today permitted me to take a warranted cheap shot at the Republicans, so I offer another piece from today where I am playing with sound while putting conventional sense aside. Be patient with me." Exposure As I am on a Friday thrown from rides of fiery wheels and far too many wings for natural, symbolic, welcome things like circling birds, my tied insides, yes, bound and tightened, coiled, like what resides beneath the sun-warmed rocks beside the springs, beside the foot-worn patch beneath the swings, its warning body’s end from bite, what hides in memory and habit that’s denied or, grudged, accepted once exposed to light and, nudged to show itself, a new delight until one’s need for new is satisfied and now, known novelty, sun-blanched to white, must find much deeper covert in the night. —Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] I hope all y'all won't mind too much if I take a cheap shot as well. Alan, I don't feel guilty at all.  ヅ  And thus it begins. See you here tomorrow? Friends, won't you comment, please? We'd love to know what you're thinking. To comment, look for a red line below that starts Posted by, then click once on the word comments in that line. If you don't find the word "comments" in that line, then look for a blue link below that says Post a comment and click it once. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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