I will out myself now: I am a lousy poet.  In all the years of my life, I have written about four works that I think qualify as actual poetry (I have written them carefully in a notebook that I hope to have half-full before I die).  But I love to read it.  So I was excited to discover that April is (in America, anyway) National Poetry Month.

And in the grand, go-getting tradition of the US of A, home of NaNoWriMo, this has inspired the creation of NaPoWriMo.  For those who haven’t heard, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, held in November each year, which is a challenge to writers to write 50 thousand words of their novel in a month.  NaPoWriMo is the poetry equivalent, where challengees set themselves to write 30 poems in 30 days.

At my current output rate, I would need to live to approximately 330 to produce 30 poems, but in keeping with the spirit of the thing, I have dusted off The Notebook and found this.  It’s untitled.

Sleepless 2am
Who are you?

Moonlight dapples troubled eyes
Doubt drops acid and clear onto night vision
What lies here?

A face, well-loved
A body, well-known
A voice -
Still now, in sleep
That sounds the rhythm of my days

All these lie here
Surrendered, in slumber, to the night
and to me.

Moonlight soothes the eyes
As doubt dissolves in tears of rest
It is enough.

© Imelda Evans 2012

That’s it for me for the decade, but there are plenty of others out there who are writing poetry and more – bless em! – posting it on the web where we can all read it!

Three that I have discovered recently are Mr Dean J Baker, who does some lovely work.  This one caught me first thing in the morning, when the coffee image exerted a visceral pull on my senses, but he has many more.

Closer to home (for me), there is David Landgrebe from Sydney, who also turns a nice phrase (and some nice art to go with it).

And I stumbled across this from Sandylikeabeach and it got under my skin, too.

There are many more sites listed on the NaPoWriMo site.  Go and wallow in some words, or add some of your own!  For a description of National Poetry Writing Month and things you can do to celebrate, go here and here.

And if, like me, you find the idea of creating ‘real poetry’ leads to having to lie down in a darkened room with cucumbers on your eyes, you might like to try ‘spine poetry.

Where are the awards for best new parlour game of the 21st Century?  Because this needs to get one.

My friend Beth Cregan introduced me to this idea.  The picture above more or less tells the story of how to do it.  If you click on it (or her name), it will take you to her blog, from where I pinched the picture and where there are more great examples.  I can’t wait to have a go at this and  will be rounding up my family to do it at the first sign of wet weather! (For more great examples to get you inspired, try here.)

Do you have any favourite poets?  Or favourite poetry sites?  Or pictures of cool spine poems?  Share, please!

Happy Monday,

Imelda


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