poetry – Page 4 – The Jake of All Trades

Poetry Challenge, Meta Post

I have written up three, yes THREE, poetry challenges for 2016: a fun game of lyrical telephone, called 1 in 12; a moment of reflection over your coffee, called Monday Poems; and the poetry version of NANOWRIMO, called April Poems.

Take a look, take a challenge, get to writing!

1 in 12

I want you to write one poem in 2016, but write it 12 times, seeing what time brings to the process.

Monday Poems

I want you to take a moment every Monday morning and write a poem.

April Poems

Write one poem a day for all of April

April Poems – A Poetry Challenge for 2016

This one is a more intense challenge, and one I have done a few years now. April is National Poetry month, and to celebrate we have a poetry challenge.

Write a poem each day of April.

Preferred method is by hand for this one. Take a notebook, one with 30 blank pages, and give each day in April a single page.

That is your working space for the day. All of your writing and edits go here, and no where else. Now, confined in both time and space, create. Thirty days, thirty poems.

While I do edit later (usually much later, as this, like NANOWRIMO, tends to wear you out some), the goal of each day is to have a presentable draft.

30 in 30, your own April Poems.

Monday Poems, A Poetry Challenge for 2016

Ok, another poetry challenge for you. This one is simple. Every Monday, go to a blank sheet in your notebook (or how ever you write) and write out one poem about something that happened the week before.

Don’t edit, or second guess. Spend 5 or so minutes thinking about all the things that happened the previous week, then another 5 or so crafting something.

Close your notebook, and go about your day.

Can you go back, edit? do what you want! These are yours! The challenge is that first step, that first draft. You’ll have 52 of them at the end of the year. That’s a book. Even if only half are good, that’s 26 poems you didn’t have.

Not a fan of Monday? Doesn’t work? Make them Tuesday Poems, Sunday Morning poems, Thursday while I wait for my laundry to be done poems. Just stick with the day. For this exercise, it is the schedule that is the lesson.