Want to write a collective poem?
Plus an April round up...
Hello May (goodbye April),
Phew, so it felt like there was a lot of poetry about in April. How wonderful.
Did you take part in any of the #NaPoWriMo challenges or prompts? I didn’t. I feared I was missing out. Then I noticed that fear and pulled myself away further (I know what’s good for me). Lisa from Poems and that makes some good observations about writing under pressure and sharing poems on the internet in this post (plus shares some of her own poems from April that are well worth a read).
I then decided I would collate a selection of the resources that were doing the rounds last month on here for us to return to. I started a list. Within minutes I could feel myself wanting to go and make a drink instead. You see, a list of resources is great but I already have SO many prompts and ideas and snippets and poems. And even more can just add to the feeling of overwhelm as opposed to inspired.
So, I returned to the thing I actually love to do - sharing some poetry with you. My happy place. Here are a handful that I’ve enjoyed this past month. Plus a poem of my own. Then finally at the end, a little something extra for paid subscribers this month which I am VERY excited about.
“love on top of love and more pears, all the sunlit pears.” This is ‘Pear Tree’ by Victoria Chang. Found via The Yale Review where you can hear it read too.
I’ve swooned once again over the poem ‘Weeds and Wildflowers’ written by our very own Lisa
in this post (thanks to Jen who sent me the link again after our last poetry circle):
I think I shared this one on Notes but here it is again because, well, Notes. This is ‘The Singers Change, the Music Goes on’ by Linda Gregg.
“than all the sky which only is higher than the sky” - oh the power of unusual and surprising word placement, the playfulness combined with the crazy, mad feeling of love had me fawning over this poem I’d never read before by E.E Cummings found via The Poetry Foundation.
And finally one I wrote last month about a vase of Tulips gifted by a friend earlier in the month.
Fancy writing a collective poem together?
I’ve wanted to try something like this for THE longest time and finally the right idea seemed to come along. I am currently playing around with the poems that will end up in my second poetry collection and this topic (and idea) has been whispering to me. So….