Tag / #glopowrimo

by Carol J Forrester

NaPoWriMo Wrap Up – Alison Aldridge

Alison Aldridge is a blogger and writer of fiction novels. Her short romance story was published in the Scribblers Anthology to raise money for the Children’s Hospice. She maintains a personal blog on writing and organic beauty. She has contributed articles to third parties on gaming, fashion industry and writing. She was one of the first featured writers on Opuss for her poetry.

Alison has delivered courses to develop the English skills of her students. As well as education, Alison has experience as a model. She is a member of Scribblers, a local writers group and enjoys attending the annual Felixstowe Book Festival. Alison is an active member of many online writing communities.

Alison is currently reworking Drift, a coming of age Young Adult novel about a mermaid and first love as well as other YA fiction projects.

Why I took the challenge:

This was my first year attempting the NaPoWriMo challenge to write 30 poems in 30 days. I hadn’t even heard of the challenge before I started. Posting one poem a day sounded easy enough but I actually found it very difficult with my schedule.

I gave it a go because although poetry isn’t my forte, I do believe it is a great way to think about how you are using the English language in your writing. It is a great developmental tool.

What was my favourite poem:

Poems for April - Day 8

Out of the 30 poems I created for this challenge, my favourite is: Day 8 – Magic.

This poem is based on the YA Fantasy novel I wrote in a few weeks and then spent years editing! I really enjoyed creating some of the scenes in the novel and based this poem on the chapters where Murray gets marked by a mermaid which grants him storm summoning poems. I wrote it from his perspective although the novel is never told from his view.

Do I recommend NaPoWriMo?

Pintrest - Poem April 28Yes, it will encourage you to try new things, think about your writing and so much more than you could imagine. It is healthy to push yourself out of your comfort zone and I tried to do the prompt each day but you don’t have to.

Even if you don’t manage to write 30 poems in 30 days, even if you only write one poem, you will still have more poems than you started with.

Others doing the challenge have been very supportive and I’ve discovered new writers to follow. I hadn’t anticipated the social impact of doing the challenge. My blog has attracted more attention than ever before.

All round it has been a very positive experience.

 

by Carol J Forrester

NaPoWriMo Wrap Up – Frank Ray/PCGuyIV

While I don’t necessarily hide my real name, as my Smashwords and Facebook accounts both use it, I had started blogging as PCGuyIV well before I had either of those, and just never bothered to change it. I do kind of like the artificial anonymity it provides, but I don’t make a big deal about it if someone actually calls me by my name in a comment.

Of course, when I started blogging, I wasn’t doing it for the sake of blogging, but rather for the sake of showing off my skills with HTML and CSS, though I quickly learned to enjoy the writing process as well. But that’s just blogging in general. I didn’t get around to the poetry thing unil a bit later.

Whereas my decent into madness…er…I mean, my attempts at blogging began back in 2005, or maybe even earlier, I didn’t start posting poetry on my blogs until 2014. And that brings me to this year, when I found out about NaPoWriMo. I wish I could say exactly what possessed me to throw my hat into the ring. I know it was at least partially fueled by the thought of putting together a follow-up to my first poetry book, but I had one of those what-was-I-thinking freak-out moments as soon as I submitted my site to the participants list.

Now, here we are five days into May, and NaPoWriMo is over. While I did my best to stick with the given prompts, there were some days that I had to just go out on my own, but I managed to successfully write a poem a day, including one for the March 31st early-bird submission.

The thing that surprised me the most about NaPoWriMo was how much I enjoyed reading the poems from the other participants. I’ve often said that I’m not a big fan of poetry, or at least I’ve never thought of myself as such, so I was genuinely surprised at how much I started to look forward to seeing what others had come up with, and I find myself already barely able to stand the anticipation of next April.

Looking back over the thirty-one poems I came up with, there are a few that stand out, but it is difficult to choose a favorite. I finally settled on the submission for April 25th. The prompt for that day was to write a poem that served as a warning label for yourself. Without further ado, I present to you, “Warning Label”:

Handle carefully
To avoid unpleasantness
Provide with coffee

by Carol J Forrester

NaPoWriMo Wrap Up – My Valiant Soul

First up in our series of guests posts for May is Devika Mathur from My Valiant Soul. I asked her to tell me about how she found taking part in NaPoWriMo and to provide us with her favorite piece that she created during the month.

Devika is a published poetess residing in a country of stratified colours, India. Her work has been published/scheduled in Visual Verse, Sick lit Mag,Kitab.org, Subterranean blue poetry among various others. A lover of Oxymoron and words and a teacher, she loves to dance to rest her anxiety.

The national poetry month was not an easy thing to comprehend. I took a pause and wrote my stress disguised as poetry like a thunder, one could say. It made me sturdy from within and outside. The poetry month is like a spring that soothes one’s soul. Healing with emotions.

 

Time & You

I was the one
with bruises and stones
in my mirror-eyed reflection
a reflection of you, mother
the cacophony of time and hours
floating inside your eyes,
the heaviness of pebbles and rituals.
Your arm mocked your cerulean breast,
with its swollen stigma of memoirs
and some pictures, vintage.
I combed your concave mouths
of dripping forlorn fractures,
like a staircase bleeding
or a topology reversed and processed.
I am a soft song in your black-knitted bun
a piece of your chipped nail,
a sunflower, kissed and harassed
inside your turbulent head.
A cauldron, and a day full of nights
hid beneath your muffled chin,
a mole hanging beneath your shouts and dim- dreams.
Mother, you are a pool of madness
and a point blank.
Obscure, shadowy your tongue knits tears
and a sweet thread of touch, impeccable.
Sometimes, I glint in your orange censure
a pattern of love and you,
Your body is a dream.
and I fall in your loops of laps.
the uncontrollable seizures,
the uncontrollable laughters,
Scarlet red wires.
it’s all you, it’s all you.

The challenge has given me a belief of satisfaction. A casket of words and literature in my daily monotonous life. I have already written more than one poetry a day but this challenge is a catharsis I feel.

by Carol J Forrester

Wrapping Up April – 30 Poems, 30 Days – Well Almost

We’re at the end of April and I’m honestly not quite sure where the month has gone. With the start of May comes the end of NaPoWriMo and I must say, I’m sad to see this challenge reach its final day, even if I did run out of steam over the last few days.

For those of you who are blissfully unaware of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). April is the month where insane poets like myself undertake the challenge to write thirty poems in thirty days. A lot of us share these poems on our blogs or social media platforms, and it’s a great opportunity to seek out fellow writers who share the obsession of poetry.

This year I wanted to write a poem for each of the optional prompts that NaPoWriMo provided. As it stands, I have two poems still left to write as I missed the last four days and I decided that I’d still have a go at writing poems for those last four poems over the first few days of May. However, if you count up the total number of poems that I wrote during April, I did hit the target of thirty. In fact I wrote thirty-nine poems during April. Therefore I’m not too annoyed at myself that I didn’t write a poem for each of the NaPoWriMo prompts within those thirty days. In fact I’m pretty proud of myself.

So, while I reveling in my thirty-nine poems, I wanted to take a moment and look at some of the other poets who took part in this challenge. A couple of weeks ago I invited anyone taking part in NaPoWriMo to join a guest post series on this blog for May. I had six volunteers and the first of those will go online tomorrow evening.

The premise for the guest posts is simple. The poets just need to say a bit about themselves, share the poem they’re most proud of from the month, and then tell us about what NaPoWriMo meant to them.

For me, NaPoWriMo is about challenging myself to write poems in a style that I might not normally use. That’s why I try and stick to the prompts. Every year I look at those prompts and turn my nose up. Then I go away and force myself to write something for them. Some days I hate it, but it can lead to some interesting poems that I wouldn’t have otherwise written. This year wasn’t any different.

As for my favorite poem from NaPoWriMo 2018, I think it would have to be the first one I wrote. My response to the early bird prompt, Letters To Nowhere. I think I spent the rest of April chasing the same feeling that I got from writing this piece but never quite managed to grasp it again. So, that it what I will leave you with. My first, and favorite poem from NaPoWriMo 2018. I hope you enjoy it.

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Letters To Nowhere

There are no postmarks for lost corners,

you can’t address an envelope

to the shadows between the pavements slabs

where you slipped from reach

days before I noticed you were gone.

When my hand closed around thin air

I could feel a chord pulling down,

yanking through my chest

into some deeper part of me,

where everything lost collects

and vanishes all at once.

The weight of your ghost became a stone

knocking against my ribs

like the second hand on a clock

forever stuck in turning circles

coming back to the starting mark

over and over again

until no one comes to wind it.

I still turn the covers of my bed,

expecting to find you inside some nights.

Pressed between the sheets

as if you’d been there all along

simply waiting for me to come back.

It is almost too easy to dream.

 

 

by Carol J Forrester

Unsteady Hands

The last time I broke a heart

I tried to jigsaw it into one piece again.

When that failed,

I filled the cracks with gold to buy his forgiveness,

because my apologies didn’t mean much

and we both knew I wasn’t to be trusted

with fragile things near cliff edges.

I had a tendency to panic when passed precious items,

fingers turning from bone to butter

 

and ‘I didn’t ask for this’

is not what you say to ‘I love you’.

Silence isn’t much better

but what shattered him in my hands

were the words ‘I’m sorry,’

as I tried to give it back without breaking both of us.

Prompt From The Poet List on Instagram

‘The Last Time I Broke A Heart’