This fun little meme from January...
1. Number of poems written in April:
30
2. Number of poems you'll keep and revise:
I'm not sure about this. I'd love to keep lots, but frankly I've written so many that are beyond repair; they were just cranked out in a hurry to fulfill my poem a day. I'm guessing about 10.
3. List the titles of your top three NaPoWriMo poems.
I've taken all three off the blog, but they're "What's Mine is Missing," "Pulling," and "December Skirts."
4. List your three least favorite NaPoWriMo poems.
"Autobiography" (it was really shaky), "Without Wings" (an absolute disaster), "I Have Finally Found the Hole-Puncher, and it's Black" (another extremely shaky one).
5. Favorite line from one of your NaPoWriMo poems.
"Slices of steam whisper their way / out of my cup, dreaming of / white Spanish skirts in Panama,/ a place I've only been to in old / photos."
6. Notice any patterns?
I'd write some good ones, and then I'd have a stream of not-so-good ones, and then another good one, and then another few bad ones, and that's pretty much how April went. Some people pointed out that at times, I'd produce a handful of sad poems, so I made an effort to write happier ones.
7. What surprised you most about writing a poem a day?
That I had enough discipline to make myself do it -- and I never thought I actually would finish it, but I did. It seemed a bit intimidating at first, but it wasn't that bad most of the time. Some days I hated myself for thinking I could do it. (And that's where I got the sad and awful poems, I guess.)
8. Now that you have momentum, what's next?
Revising and submitting and organizing all the material I've got. I'm going to end up not using so many of my NaPoWriMo poems, I know, so I've lots of writing ahead of me as well. I'm not going to worry about manuscripts just yet; I'd like to submit first and then, in a month or two, I'll see where I am and what my next move should be.
I'm taking the summer to work on my poems and a "summer project," which, at the moment, is prose. I'll probably begin putting poems together for a manuscript in the summer, but I'm not positive about that.
I'm glad I did NaPoWriMo now, because even though I can't say it was the best month of my life, it certainly gave me new material to play with.
1 comment:
This is a great reflection. I wrote a haiku every day but didn't post the last one on the 30th because I was swamped with grad school deadlines. I should do a reflection like this if I can get around to it! I admire your determination to do something positive with the poems you wrote. Submitting has always been my weak spot. I'm going to watch you to see where you find to submit.
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