I'm now officially devoid of imagination / inspiration and don't particularly want to spent the rest of the month posting old poems that are just going to be rubbish no matter how much I rework them.
I'm not saying I won't be writing any more poems this month, but right now it seems that if I can manage even one more it'll be a miracle. Thanks to those who have persevered reading through my attempts at a poem a day. I feel I've got some good stuff to work on, the poems seemed to come easy the first two weeks, I guess I've got to work out how to hold onto the pattern of just writing each day.
14 comments:
then that's what you should do. i think you did more this year than last year? i think, like everything else, i do less and less over winter. napo's just a good excuse to get going again, not a cane to beat yourself with
yes I did manage more this year and for the most part enjoyed just forcing my self to write which is so opposite from how I normally write.
i am skeptical about such a challenge, because for sure it is not the way poetry is written (although i think that many novelists argue that writing every day, no matter what and how, is an indispensable exercice - but still, poetry and prose are different) - but i think it can be fun and am also amazed at the fantastic results i have read here and on elvis - that's the trick, if it is fun, then why not... but i don't see any reason why you should be sad if you give it up.
i am grateful as it is that you made us all these gifts so far.
(and i remember now that i discovered your blog last year during NaPoWriMo :-)
I think I understand the reasons for your scepticism, Roxana, but I wouldn't be too sceptical. I have done NaPoWriMo for five years in a row (at least, this will be the fifth if I finish) and I've always come up with with a number of drafts that have eventually matured into poems I'm really pleased with, poems I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have written otherwise.
I agree with Swiss though that NaPoWriMo shouldn't become a cane to beat yourself with. If you've written some good drafts, then it's been worthwhile. No point in feeling guilty about stopping.
thanks roxana, that's very nice of you to say so and I'm glad to have many of the drafts for poems that I wouldn't have written otherwise.
hi rob, yes I was rather sceptical of the usefuless of this kind of thing until I gave it a go last year and although I only made it half-way through the month I was surprised at what I managed to produce. Also this year, I'm particularly pleased at a couple of draft poems that I now have to work on.
Who knows maybe one day I'll make it right through the month but when it becomes more of a drudge than fun I don't see that it'll produce anything remotely fruitful.
I'm lucky if I write a few lines a month these days (ok, I'm not that bad..) But there was a time when I could happily have written 30 poems a day.
I'm all for setting myself challenges, and "writing to order" isn't non-poetic in my opinion. And if something good happens as a result, well, who's to know that it was written just-because?
While readers may be in charge, they're also quite ignorant. ;)
It's your decisions. Your poems were great but I can understand you need a break.
God Bless
Amber
I can't say I am surprised. A poem a day is more than I would care to undertake. Okay if they are given to you, of course, but to commit yourself to such a marathon takes a great deal of courage. You should consider what you have achieved as a triumph, not a failure - but I am sure you do so without my advice. Recuperate and then let us have it again, straight between the eyes!
hi david, I don't think there was ever a time when I could happily have written 30 poems a day!!
hi amber, I'm really glad you enjoyed the poems, thanks.
hi dave, more madness than courage, lol. I would have had to stop anyhow, everyone here's fallen ill and none of us are getting much sleep.
I'm with Dave - some R-n-R is due after so demanding a regime.
Adolescence is a great inspiration. 30 poems a day could've been a doddle...;)
ah, ok! I never wrote poetry during my adolescent years!
Unfortunatley I did! And thankfully all that exists are seven lines of one poem that I haven't been able to forget... where's the amnesia-hammer when you need it?
oh I did write a good number of dreadful poems in my early twenties, but I've managed to mind blank them :)
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