APRIL & NATIONAL POETRY WRITING MONTH by Penny Dolan

Today, April 1st, is the start of National Poetry Writing Month, which celebrates its twenty-fifth birthday this year. Hooray and well done!

Personally, I rather wish that the acronyms – NaPoWriMo or GloPoWriMo in the worldwide version, or even that Na/GloPoWriMo version - sounded more poetical. They remind me, spoken aloud, of a vocal exercise, good for ten repetitions as a warm up before giving a poetry performance. But that’s acronyms for you.


This year I feel a little bad, not about the daily writing prompt but because I have two boxes of poetry books in the hall, both on their way out of the door. They will be going to a nearby Oxfam shop or similar: one box is full of children’s poetry, while the other holds ‘grown-up’ poems. But now, both are sitting in the hall sulking, reminding me of that statistic that shows more people write poetry than read it, and silently asking me why I am getting rid of them now, eh? But I have read them, I have used them and now they need to go.


Several were really useful when I was part of a monthly Poetry Reading group, which had some great sessions. We met with the simple aim of reading other people’s poems, never our own. This meant that the group could also include friends and partners who simply enjoyed poetry. We began with a list of named poets, set one per month and used the four weeks to find out more about their life and work, both through books or online. Then we met, bringing our thoughts and favourite poems to share at the next meeting. Occasionally, we chose poems around a theme instead, bringing four or five poems to read aloud and share. I must say that hearing the lines that you’d read and knew inside your head suddenly voiced and out there in that shared room could be magical. Ah well, that was then - and the small group is now a memory: a social casualty of the Covid era. Moments of the past, as the boxes of books will soon be.


I still have a lot of poetry books and anthologies here: mostly old favourite poems and poets where the language or spirit spoke to me, or to the person I was at that time, and still does. Rather like favourite song lyrics, I suppose. Can't let go.

   

But as for today, the first of April, and that daily poetry challenge? Will it be a good idea for me or not? As soon as I have a ‘Hmm, this is me sort of writing a poem’ thought in my mind, the old poetry worries start muttering.

Some anxieties spring from the host of poetic forms and rhythms and structures out there. Can one work on a poem ‘seriously’ without all that in your skill-set? Hopefully, if you are familiar with poetry at some level, the patterns and shapes reveal themselves as you think and voice the seed of the poem over and over in your head. Or so I hope and trust.

At a practical level, the daily NaPoWriMo email, once you have signed up for it, can be a useful source of inspiration and information. Each day brings a new writing prompt, which often links to a suggested structure, so gradually the month becomes a reminder of the variety of poetic forms, both traditional and contemporary. 

Of course, the email can simply be dipped into for any interesting knowledge, letting the writer carry on with their own ideas for the day. With no obligation, no posting poems online and no need to become ‘part of the community’, unless that is what is wanted. The writer can choose.

However, there’s another anxiety that comes with poetry for me: a fear of exposure, of being too seen. Fiction is wonderful for giving the writer a disguise, a way of hide themselves behind the clothes and the characters and story. Poetry often feels closer to the maker, gives more obvious evidence of their moods and thoughts, and there's the uncertainty. What will happen if my work reveal ‘louder’ voices than I use in my everyday person? Will the bare-faced writing reveal moods and thoughts I’d rather keep secret? Bring on an unfamiliarly confident tone? Will I even know who I am a month of focused poetry-making? Thank heaven one’s work can be kept private. 

For now, the focus is on Day One . . .


Hope you have a good April and happy celebrations, with or without poetry.

Penny Dolan


ps. I felt I should end with something to honour the day, so here are some thoughts on a particularly annoying poetic form. Are you ready? Here goes . . .


Ain’t gonna do one
Can‘t make me write one
Really, who needs one
Over-worked trick?
Show me no poet ways,
Throw me no poet praise,
I ain’t gonna go for it, ain’t gonna stick, ain’t gonna do that A-
Crostic.