RSSPoetry Challenge
I’m challenging myself and my readers to pay attention to the world around us, our daily lives, right now, and to use that to make poetry.
More clearly: I’m asking you to join me in the “Making Poetry Out of Nothing” challenge. Over the next week, pay attention to the things you do each day, whether they are routine or unusual. Then turn that into a poem.
If you’ve never written a poem, don’t let that stop you. Start at the beginning. Take a few moments when you wake up or on your lunch break or just before you go to bed to jot down some thoughts, a journal entry of sorts. Let it sit for a day, then come back to it and flesh it out, write it up in paragraph form.
Then start molding that paragraph–throw in some line and stanza breaks. Don’t stress out about where they go–decide to put them every fourth word and every third line, or just put some in whenever it feels right.
This challenge isn’t about writing poetry that will change the world or be remembered throughout the ages. It’s about finding a way into poetry and using it as a way (one of many) to observe and synthesize our lives, as a way to communicate with this whole wide world full of people going through things not unlike what we’re going through ourselves.
But here’s where the real challenge comes in: once you’ve built your poem, I want you to send it to me. Then I’ll share them here, on the blog throughout the rest of poetry month.
Need some ideas on how to get started? Check out this post.
Got questions? Email me at halfstartsandtrailoffs [at] gmail [dot] com.