OCTOBER WRITING CHALLENGE 2019 SERIES

The poem should contain at least one simile that plays on double meanings or otherwise doesn’t quite make “sense,” and describe things or beings from very different times or places as co-existing in the same space. Today, begin by reading Bernadette Mayer’s poem “ The Lobelias of Fear.” Now write your own poem titled “The _ of _,” where the first blank is a very particular kind of plant or animal, and the second blank is an abstract noun. First, here’s Victoria Doerper’s What if We All Bloomed?: Poems of Nature, Love, and Aging, and next, Mirjana M’s Colour Me in Cayenne & Chlorine.Īnd now for our daily prompt (optional, as always).

For a little more context, see the comment here.Īs today’s featured resource, we have another duo of books written by Na/GloPoWriMoers, and featuring work first drafted during Na/GloPoWriMo. Today, our featured participant is Veruugal, who brings us a moving elegy in response to Day 26’s “what’s in a name?” prompt. Happy Thursday, everyone, and happy twenty-seventh day of Na/GloPoWriMo. (updated to fix the broken link to our featured participant’s poem) You could start with found language from an actual index, or you could invent an index, somewhat in the style of this poem by Kell Connor. Today, I challenge you to write your own index poem. I took a look at the index, and found the following entry under “Man”:įails to attain perfection, 46 can take advantage of any quality within him, 46 his plot of ground, 46 his use, 52, 56 not to be trusted with too much power, 55 should not be too conscientious, 58 occult relationship between animals and, 75 God in, 79, 86 not looked upon as an animal, 80 gains courage by going much alone, 81 the finished, 89 and woman, distinctive marks of, 109 reliance in the moral constitution of, 124 the infinitude of the private, 151 and men, 217 should compare advantageously with a river, 258. Have you ever flipped to the index of a book and found it super interesting? Well, I have (yes, I live an exciting life!) For example, the other day I pulled from my shelf a copy of on old book that excerpts parts of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s journals. Last but not least, here’s our daily prompt, optional and once more taken from our archives. And for our chapbooks, here’s Lorraine Whelan’s Home Sweet Home Goodbye and Nina Lewis’s Fragile Houses.

For our book, we have Bruce Niedt‘s collection, In the Bungalow of Colorful Aging. Today’s featured participant is Jacquelyn Markham, who brings us a bouquet of yellow celosias in response to Day 27’s “Blank of Blank” prompt.Īnd for today’s resource, we have another book and two chapbooks published by Na/GloPoWriMoers, featuring poems written during the challenge. Just three days left in Na/GloPoWriMo 2023! Alternatively, you could play around with the idea of a palinode by writing a poem in which the speaker says something like “I take it back” or otherwise abandons a prior position within the single poem.

OCTOBER WRITING CHALLENGE 2019 SERIES

This could be an interesting way to start working on a series of related poems. For example, you might pick a poem you drafted earlier in the month and write a poem that contradicts or troubles it. Our final daily resource is a pair of podcasts: Wacky Poem Life, sponsored by the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry (yes, there is a Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry!), and Haiku Chronicles, a podcast focused on haiku and related poetic forms.Īnd now for our last prompt of the year (still optional!) Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a palinode – a poem in which you retract a view or sentiment expressed in an earlier poem. Thank you all for joining the challenge during this, its twentieth year! We’ll be back tomorrow with our final featured participant and some housekeeping information, as we prepare to go back into our long sleep (like Robert Frost’s woodchuck) until next spring.īut for now, here’s our daily featured participant is Farah Lawal Harris, who responded to Day 29’s food-based prompt with a paean to Nigerian cooking. Well, we knew it would come to this, what with the inexorable march of time and all.

October writing challenge 2019