On this 30th day of March, we find ourselves only two days away from National Poetry Writing Month, during which we creative types are encouraged to compose a poem a day every day for the entire month of April. I can safely (but humbly) brag about the fact that I have completed this task of thirty poems in a single month now eleven years in a row. By now the habit has become so deeply ingrained in my yearly routine that there’s really no question in my mind: I will write 30 more poems in April for the twelfth consecutive year.
If you are a regular reader here you might already know about a wonderful tool that I recommend for participants of this annual poetry writing endeavor, the NaPoWriMo website, whose longtime curator, Maureen Thorson, has for about 20 years now maintained a website where poets can submit links to their own poetry sites, read other poets, find inspirational literary links to some really fine poetry and poetry tools from a wide variety of sources, and, perhaps most importantly, find an optional prompt for each day’s poetry excursion. I am a religious visitor of the NaPoWriMo site, and find that more often than not, or at least quite regularly, I will employ the day’s prompt for generating the poem of the day. They’re often quite good. Over the course of the 11 years of my participation, some recycling has occurred–I can’t blame her for that–and sometimes I will go ahead and use the prompt again. But I will ignore the prompt as well if I am working on a particular project (60 sonnets in two years, for example), if I am inspired by something else, or if the prompt just doesn’t float my boat. A quick perusal of the website on this 30th day of March, two days from April, it looks like this year Maureen Thorson has cooked up something both recycled and new. The site has quite regularly, maybe at least once every year, provided a prompt to write an “ekphrastic” poem–which is the endeavor of writing a poem in response to or about a piece from a different kind of art. Often, ekphrastic poems are written about paintings or other kinds of visual art, but I imagine that ekphrastic poems could also be written about music, film, dance, theater, or architecture. The new twist on the ekphrastic prompt, the website tells us, is that ALL month the prompts might lean into the ekphrastic. If one is religious about following the prompts then, one might produce thirty ekphrastic poems over the course of the month.
I like this idea. The ekphrastic poem has a long, storied tradition. Like some formal structures, it’s got lots of famous practitioners and it’s easy to find classic examples. It’s a cool exercise. It often takes the writer to surprising places. And, for me, in this day and age, it might help to take my creative thinker away from being stuck in the mire of the current political chaos of these United States. It’s helpful to have some time every day when the news is purposefully barred from entrance. I get 20 minutes of that in my daily meditation practice; in April, with a good chunk of time dedicated to writing a poem that takes as its starting point another piece of art, I hope to find another kind of respite from obsessing over my rage and embarrassment of being an American in the age of Trump.
I hope you visit me each day in April to see what’s cooking. My undying appreciation in advance: thank you!
michael jarmer 