Goodbye National Poetry Month

Always seems to last forever, always over too quick.

Thoughts About Poetry: 7/30

Work Poems. I have to avoid them for th emoment. Maybe you should too, if you can. Maybe not.

Thoughts About Poetry: 6/30

Response poems. Do you write them? I do. I just don't anyone know who I'm responding to.

Thoughts About Poetry: 5/30

Just got finished with my poem for today. Or so I thought. I won't be publishing it today. Call it poem 7.5.

Has that happened to you? You want to write something, but it's too personal to share, so you stop writing it, but then you can't write anything else?

If you're like me, you better write it anyway.  For me, a poem I get the urge to write, how ever impractical, can stop the flow of ideas like a dam. I could be stuck on it for an ungodly amount of time. Best to get it out of the way as soon as possible.

I find that even happens if I put a lot in my notebook without transcribing them into a "final" draft in my computer. I'll be typing up a few of my poems up later today.

Above all, if you have something to write, then write it. 

Thoughts About Poetry: 4/30

Talking less as a poet and more as a host for other poets.

Asking about the venue I host is actually the worst thing a poet can do to feign politeness.

Poets, if you want to get on my good side, stop asking me about Stone Soup.

This is the internet age. Poets, if nothing else, are masters of self-promotion whether it's successful or not is another thing entirely. The point is that our information is out thee. I myself juggle 6-8 web pages at a time, not including the wotk I do as an online magazine editor.

I put info about every event as much as I possibly can.

Recently, a poet asked me when Stone Soup meets. After I put them on my weekly newsletter.

For f***'s sake, Google me! Or better yet, search your own inbox before you talk to me at an event.

At least pretend to respect me. I can only handle so much narcissism in a poetry scene.

Thoughts About Poetry: 3/30

Today I tried to write another Tretina. It was a poetic form I was introduced to by Tom Daley. It's like a sestina, except shortened to ten lines instead of the daunting 39 lines. Three three-line stanzas using three ABC ending words in the order of:

ABC
CAB
BCA

With the last line using ABC at once.

I wrote my first tretina in Tom's workshop. It was called "Homecoming" and was later published in French Connections. One of the best things I've written, to be honest. Never shared it online, don't want to now, though I still read it now and again.

Nearly every year since, for NaPoWriMo, I've gotten the urge to write another tretina. You can see a link to most of them here.  I'm not happy with most of them. Except for the one I wrote tonight.

In a Miles Davis documentary, he told a musician he worked with, "You know why I don't do ballads anymore? Because I love them." Meaning he loved them so much he didn't want to just repeat over and and over and ruin  his enjoyment of them. I feel that way with the Tretina form.

You might not get the impression with the selection I linked to, but I like how the flow of repetition in a tretina has the potential to create a kind of prayer or mantra effect with each poem.

I've only been able to create that really effectively once, with my first attempt.

If I try to recreate it, I often try too hard, and it falters.

Still, I try every year, out of sentimentality.

What's something you keep trying to recreate.

Thoughts About Poetry: 2/30

On Sunday night, before National Poetry Writing Month started, I wrote a poem I had in my head since Thursday.

Thoughts About Poetry: 1/30

A question for fellow writers. Have you ever had a friend, a family member or a coworker talk to you and tell you they're a poet?

For Those Visiting This Blog Today for National Poetry Writing Month

Above image above courtesy of Maureen Thorson.

 

Welcome everyone participating in National Poetry Writing Month. I will have something up soon. Just to let those of you new to this blog know some things.

I will be posting my first poem soon. All my poems for the event be under the NaPoWriMo banner. In addition, I have weekly poems I will be continue to post separate from the thirty-poem challenge. Check out my Stone Soup Croutons series updated every Friday morning and my From Picture to Page series every Monday at noon.

Hopefully, I'll also be posting other poems throughout the month. Just around midnight, I posted my latest Tales of the Alt-Blight poem.

I also help publish Oddball Magazine.  We publish five days a week and will have something special for National Poetry Month today. Any of you writing poems this week should submit them to us as soon as possible (provided you edit them after taking them off your blog).

Thank you for reading. More work up soon.

Okay. Back to work.

Thirty Thoughts About Poetry

For National Poetry Month, I decided to writing a poem a day as per my usual routine, I'll also be sharing random thoughts about poetry and being a poet.

This will either be fun or a slog. I haven't figured out which yet. Stay tuned.

Flyer for the Boston National Poetry Month Festival

NaPoWriMo 2019 Here I Come!

Above image above courtesy of Maureen Thorson,

 

It starts April 1st. NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is a thirty-challenge to write thirty poems by the end of April. I can't wait to take on the challenge this year. If you want to follow my progress, then click this link to my blog, which will feature every one of my poems as they go up. Hopefully, I'll have more surprises in store for National Poetry Month.

The Flyer for Charles Coe's Feature at Stone Soup Poetry

April 4: Charles Coe Helps Us Begin National Poetry Month

I first asked Charles Coe to come read at Stone Soup all the way back in 2007 when our home was on Prospect Street in Cambridge. It's about time I ask him to return, this time at Stone Soup's current home in St. Paul's Cathedral. Charles will return to our podium on April 4, the first Thursday of National Poetry Month. His newest collection, Memento Mori, was just released and should be available for his reading. You should be there with me. April will be an exciting month for Stone Soup attendees, poets and poetry lovers in general. More events will be announced this week, and I hope you'll join us for everything I'm planning.

National Poetry Writing Month: Coming Soon

Can't wait.

Keep visiting the site. Hopefully, it will be updated soon.