NaPoWriMo

Okay, there's this thing called National Poetry Writing Month, where people who consider themselves poets, or people who don't consider themselves poets but write poems anyway, are supposed to write a poem a day for the entire month. That's 30 poems in 30 days for you counting at home.

I think they got this idea after being jealous of the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) people where in November would-be novelists crank out an entire novel in 30 days. My biggest worry about that is in December I'm betting there are thousands of crappy, unedited novels sitting in the slush piles of publishing houses everywhere. On second thought why do I care? I'm not reading them.

Actually, NaPoWriMo occurs during Nation Poetry Month, where we're encouraged to seek out some of the millions of poems that have already been created and read them and maybe pass them on to someone else. If you're interested in checking out some poetry try here, and this one is dog related by one of my favorite poets, and this one about poems. And if you like short poetry, lots of it here. But at some point someone actually thought is was a good idea to add to the giant pool of poetry, and we now have NaPoWriMo (by the way, we veterans pronounce it Nay-Poe-Wry-Mo).

This is my third year. My first produced maybe a dozen pieces, but last year I did the whole thirty. Some of them have been published in modest little journals, and some of them are still looking for a home.

Here's one that will never be published (for obvious reasons):

#11

My chocolate lab

likes to chase chocolate

bunnies, which we all

know are poisonous

to dogs. So when my

chocolate lab licks

himself, will he die?

Yes, day 11 was especially bereft of ideas. I my defense, that was a day where I had only four minutes to write, with dull a crayon on a McDonald's napkin while standing in line at Heinen's.

So this year it's day 25 and I've done only 22. Five are pretty good, and the rest are just something to get me to the next one. I'd post one for you but in the publishing game, putting it on my little blog here is considered being published, and most places do not want it anymore.

I write this for two reasons. 1. To finally have a place to use my chocolate lab poem, and 2. In hopes that you will go find a poem and read it and share it, especially with a child. In fact there is no cooler book that one of Shel Silverstein's, where the poetry is magical and really accessible, and the kids really love it. Adults love it too.

And if you're so inclined, take a quiet moment to grab a pen and clean sheet of paper, and find something from your heart and share it with us. That's all poetry really is.

P.S. You can find one of my published poems here, and another one here (scroll down).