NaPoWriMo
NaPoWhatNow?
It’s nearly April so it’s nearly NaPoWriMo. National Poetry Writing Month. It’s the sister organisation to NaNoWriMo which is National Novel Writing Month but no one talks about that anymore1. NaPoWriMo is a challenge where you agree to write a poem a day for the month of April. Each year the official NaPoWriMo website even offers a prompt a day to help you write something. However, don’t be surprised if you find yourself writing about flowers.
It’s always flowers. Write a poem about a flower. That’s what the world needs. Another poem about another flower.
Last year I shared some of my NaPoWriMo poems on here along with a brief write up of where the idea came from and why I wrote it. I’ve said it before I like these “DVD extras” type things where creatives talk about their process and decision making. If you like things like that, then click “Subscribe now” below.
If last year is anything to go by I won’t share every poem and all poems are classed as “Work In Progress”. As always I’m hoping sharing this stuff will encourage others to try to be creative. Yet this year presents a “unique” challenge.
My show is on at the Arena Theatre slap bang in the middle of NaPoWriMo2. As a result expect the poems on 14th, 15th and 16th April to be short and sporting titles like, “Why do I do this to myself?”, “Lines escape my noggin like Frank Morris escaped Alcatraz3.” or “I’M THE FUCKING BEST AT EVERYTHING4.”
There is another “unique” challenge.
I am currently doing a weekly “poem” challenge as part of PPP. However, “poem” has started doing a lot of heavy lifting. We start with a prompt one of us sends out on Sunday and by the following Sunday we should have written a poem. But I’m finding I’m not doing that many poems. I tend to get an idea, let it stew and around Wednesday or Thursday it starts forming into a piece of work. A piece of work that isn’t always a “poem”. The Inner Monologue of Briony Carmichael is an example of one of these. I don’t know what that piece is but I’m fairly sure it’s not a poem.
NaPoWriMo has quite a bit of emphasis on the “po” bit. Iambs and all that. It’s not that I’m adverse to writing poetry anymore. Far from it. It’s just I’m finding a nice groove by letting the idea dictate what it is rather than the other way around. I am but a transcribing vessel guided by the wind of ideas on the sea of creativity. Something like that. Maybe wind of creativity on the sea of ideas. Either way I’m a boat being buffeted and I’m just hanging on and enjoying the ride.
I guess that’s the thing. I am enjoying the ride. I feel creative and overwhelmingly content with what’s happening. I’m finding a childish playfulness to my creativity which I think has been repressed for too long. I’m understanding my own brain and thought processes more. I’m definitely living today better than I lived yesterday. I can’t ask for much more really.
Dave Pitt
Pungenday, Discord 15, Year of Our Lady of Discord 3192
Essentially they said it was okay to use AI because they didn’t understand it’s not AI but a plagiarism and probability engine. People, quite rightly, said “Get ta fuck with ya NaNoWriMo bollocks if you’re letting people use AI shit.” But look, that’s a whole other tangent I probably shouldn’t get into here.
Not an advert. A statement of fact.
In that they are presumed dead and never seen again.
Should the show go well. Which it will. Get tickets.