Whoop Whoop Whoop
I have successfully completed my first APAD - 30 poems in 30 days. And some of them weren't so bad! I'm proud of myself, I've tried this many times but never allowed myself to just write, as Dorianne Laux puts it:
The trick is not to worry too much about it and to always be ready by reading and writing as much as you can, allowing yourself to write bad poems, horrible poems, make big mistakes, and go on. Interview Southern Hum
I'm going to take a break now. Thing is, my style is to write every night for an hour, fill pages in a notebook. Then, when the urge to write a poem takes hold, I have those notebooks as a resource. Writing a poem a day took away from my time with the notebook. Writing a Poem A Day with a workshop requires that the poet also comment on all the other PAD participants. This is hard! I kept a little list and kept track of who I had commented on, and tried to spread it throughout a workday. I kept my comments to 8 or 9, and tried to return comment with people who commented on my poems. Anyhow, it's quite inspiring to receive 11 comments on a poem, all of them good. Because the thing about PAD comments, there is no critique. Even without critique, however, it's easy to see what poems work and what poems fall flat.
All fun, and supportive - if you've never done it before, I highly recommend the effort. The two most active forums I've found are Blueline and Inside the Writers Studio. I suggest you read the works on both and pick the group that matches your approach.
And have fun!
The trick is not to worry too much about it and to always be ready by reading and writing as much as you can, allowing yourself to write bad poems, horrible poems, make big mistakes, and go on. Interview Southern Hum
I'm going to take a break now. Thing is, my style is to write every night for an hour, fill pages in a notebook. Then, when the urge to write a poem takes hold, I have those notebooks as a resource. Writing a poem a day took away from my time with the notebook. Writing a Poem A Day with a workshop requires that the poet also comment on all the other PAD participants. This is hard! I kept a little list and kept track of who I had commented on, and tried to spread it throughout a workday. I kept my comments to 8 or 9, and tried to return comment with people who commented on my poems. Anyhow, it's quite inspiring to receive 11 comments on a poem, all of them good. Because the thing about PAD comments, there is no critique. Even without critique, however, it's easy to see what poems work and what poems fall flat.
All fun, and supportive - if you've never done it before, I highly recommend the effort. The two most active forums I've found are Blueline and Inside the Writers Studio. I suggest you read the works on both and pick the group that matches your approach.
And have fun!
posted by Squamish Writers Group at 9:15 PM
4 Comments:
Congratulations, Jude! I've been watching your progress at Blueline and am so impressed (I've not become a poster there, but enjoy reading). Really, I'm amazed by all of you who embark on that 30/30 adventure and I hope to do it someday, but my production ratio is more like one poem a month. I'm going to read the Laux interview you noted and try to relax into it and write more. Okay, today I'll write a bad poem! Congrats again, Toni
woo-hoo! isn't it a great feeling? i have done five rounds now, and i know i will be back. and that after i had sworn i would not last five days before i first tried it. just goes to show.
keep writing!
michi
Thanks you two! Ya - do you remember Magic Schoolbus? That teacher used to always shout 'Get out there, get dirty, make mistakes!' or something. William Stafford writes "A writer must write the bad poems in order to approach the good ones - finicky ways will dry up the sources."
This is inspiring! Of course, Stafford was probably talking about writing these bad poems in a little private notebook not on a forum for thousands to see.
So - if I couldn't write a 'good enough' poem, I wrote a short little form poem. I used the diamonte and the Bar-ku and the short poems were always good enough. It's my suspicion that short poems rarely outlive us, but rather pass away into obscurity without much ado. Unless, of course, they are about red wheelbarrows or something.
So get out there, get dirty -
Myself and some others have started poem a day blogs. I have the technical stuff set to show no more than 5 poems (with no links to others) just to prevent conflict with future publications. Let me know if you start one,
Thanks for your comments as always Toni and Michi
Way to go Jude! This morning I'm being truly tested. A poem has been forming in my mind, but its style is closest to being a L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poem, which I usually hate. I'm both intrigued and disturbed by the possibilities...
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