Welcome back, everyone, for the 23rd day of NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo. THere’s just one week left in our month of poems!

Today, we have two featured participants, because I just couldn’t choose between their Earth Day Poems for Day 22. First up is Thomas Tilton’s haiku recalling us to the effects of not taking care of the environment. Second, Clairvetica’s commingling of an Earth Day poem with an elegy for Prince.

Today’s poet in translation is Slovenia’s Taja Kramberger, who is both a poet and an anthropologist. A number of her poems, translated into English, can be found here, and six more can be found here.

Our poet in translation for Day 23 is:

And finally, our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I challenge you to write a sonnet. Traditionally, sonnets are 14-line poems, with ten syllables per line, written in iambs (i.e., with a meter in which an unstressed syllable is followed by one stressed syllable, and so on). There are several traditional rhyme schemes, including the Petrarchan, Spenserian, and Shakespearean sonnets. But beyond the strictures of form, sonnets usually pose a question of a sort, explore the ideas raised by the question, and then come to a conclusion. In a way, they are essays written in verse! This means you can write a “sonnet” that doesn’t have meet all of the traditional formal elements, but still functions as a mini-essay of a sort. The main point is to keep your poem tight, not rangy, and to use the shorter confines of the form to fuel the poem’s energy. As Wordsworth put it, in a very formal sonnet indeed, “Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room.” Happy writing!

Happy Friday, everyone, and Happy Earth Day!

Our featured participant today is Summer Blues, where the fairy tale/myth poem for Day 21 is spooky indeed!

Today, our poet in translation is Ukraine’s Halyna Krouk. Krouk’s poetry is intimately concerned with questions of gender – what is masculine or feminine, and why does it (or should it) matter? And does poetry speak in a gendered voice at all? Six of her poems can be found translated into English at the link above.

And now for our (optional) prompt. Today’s prompt comes to us from Gloria Gonsalves, who also suggested our prompt for Day Seven. Today, Gloria challenges us all to write a poem in honor of Earth Day. This could be about your own backyard, a national park, or anything from a maple tree to a humpback whale. Happy writing!

Hello, everyone, and welcome back for the 21st Day of NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo! We’re three weeks in now, with just one week and some change left to go.

Today’s featured participant is Katie Staten, whose poem for Day Twenty used kennings as a jumping-off-point to develop a larger theme.

Our poet in translation today is Iran’s Rosa Jamali. Jamali’s poetry uses surreal imagery, broken syntax, and a wealth of mythological references to create a mysterious, urgent sense of speech. Eight of her poems can be found at the link above.

And now, for our prompt (optional as always!) Just as Rosa Jamila’s poems often sound like they come out of a myth or fairy tale (and not always one with a happy ending), today I challenge you to write a poem in the voice of minor character from a fairy tale or myth. Instead of writing from the point of view of Cinderella, write from the point of view of the mouse who got turned into a coachman. Instead of writing from the point of view of Orpheus or Eurydice, write from the point of view of one of the shades in Hades who watched Eurydice leave and then come back. Happy writing!

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Today we are two-thirds done with April, and entering the home stretch of NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo.

Today, our featured participant is Vijaya Sundaram, whose didactic poem for Day 19 will teach you how to clean your house!

Our featured poet in translation is Denmark’s Inger Christensen. Christensen was an experimentalist, but that doesn’t mean her poems don’t have heart. Her book-length litany, Alphabet, for example, seems at first to be an odd, mathematically-circumscribed work, but builds gradually and through repetition into an emotionally complex reflection on the horrors of atomic warfare. Three of her poems, translated into English, can be found here, another here, and an excerpt of the first sections of Alphabet here.

And finally, our prompt (optional, as always)! Today’s prompt comes to us from Vince Gotera, who suggests a prompt very much in keeping with our poet in translation, a “kenning” poem. Kennings were riddle-like metaphors used in the Norse sagas. Basically, they are ways of calling something not by its actual name, but by a sort of clever, off-kilter description — for example, the sea would be called the “whale road.” Today, I challenge you to think of a single thing or person (a house, your grandmother, etc), and then write a poem that consists of kenning-like descriptions of that thing or person. For example, you might call a cat a mouse-stalker, quiet-walker, bird-warner, purr-former, etc. If you’re looking for examples, you can find one that Vince wrote here and a different example here. Happy writing!

Hello, everyone, and welcome back for the nineteenth day of NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo!

Today’s featured participant is angieinspired, where the “sound of home” poem for Day 18 evokes the speech of Kansas.

Our featured poet in translation today is South Africa’s Isabella Motadinyane. Writing in Sotho, English, and other languages, Motadinyane was a member of the poetry performance group the Botsotho Jesters. Five of her poems can be found at the link above, and two more can be found here.

And now for our prompt (optional, as always)! Many years ago, “didactic” poetry was very common – in other words, poetry that explicitly sought to instruct the reader in some kind of skill or knowledge, whether moral, philosophical, or practical. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write the latter kind of “how to” poem – a didactic poem that focuses on a practical skill. Hopefully, you’ll be able to weave the concrete details of the action into a compelling verse. Also, your “practical” skill could be somewhat mythological, imaginary, or funny, like “How to Capture a Mermaid” or “How to Get Your Teenager to Take Out the Garbage When He Is Supposed To.” Happy writing!

Happy third Monday in NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo, all!

Today’s featured participant is Whimsy Gizmo, where the dictionary poem for Day 17 relied on a poetry dictionary!

Our poet in translation today is Cote d’Ivoire’s Tanella Boni. Boni is a poet, novelist, and essayist, Boni is also a professor of philosophy. You can find two of her poems translated into English here, and a lengthy article about translating Ivorian poetry, including Boni’s, into English, here.

And now for our prompt (optional, as always)! Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that incorporates “the sound of home.” Think back to your childhood, and the figures of speech and particular ways of talking that the people around you used, and which you may not hear anymore. My grandfather and mother, in particular, used several phrases I’ve rarely heard any others say, and I also absorbed certain ways of talking living in Charleston, South Carolina that I don’t hear on a daily basis in Washington, DC. Coax your ear and your voice backwards, and write a poem that speaks the language of home, and not the language of adulthood, office, or work. Happy writing!

Happy Sunday, everyone, and welcome back for Day Seventeen!

Today, our featured participant is unassorted stories, where the almanac poem for Day Sixteen takes the form of a saucy exchange of letters.

Our poet in translation today is Morocco’s Fatiha Morchid. Morchid came to poetry from a scientific background (she is a practicing doctor), and her short, spare poems reflect both precision of speech and an unconcern with poetic convention. You can find eleven of her poems translated into English at the link above, and a number of others at her website.

And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I challenge you to find, either on your shelves or online, a specialized dictionary. This could be, for example, a dictionary of nautical terms, or woodworking terms, or geology terms. Anything, really, so long as it’s not a standard dictionary! Now write a poem that incorporates at least ten words from your specialized source. Happy writing!

Hello, all, and welcome back for the sixteenth day of NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo. We’re past the half-way mark now, and hopefully you are feeling good about your writing so far!

Our featured participant for today is Jane Dougherty Writes, where the doubles prompt for Day 15 resulted in a poem that can be read on the left, on the right, or altogether!

Today’s poet in translation is Somalia’s Maxamed Ibraaahim Warsame Hadraawi, a longtime advocate for Somalian independence and peace. In addition to poems, he has also written many plays, and collaborated with musicians, penning lyrics for dozens of songs. You can find six of his poems translated into English at the link above, and another, in both Somali and English translation, can be found here.

And now for our (optional) prompt. Today, I challenge you to fill out, in no more than five minutes, the following “Almanac Questionnaire,” which solicits concrete details about a specific place (real or imagined). Then write a poem incorporating or based on one or more of your answers. Happy writing!

Almanac Questionnaire

Weather:

Flora:

Architecture:

Customs:

Mammals/reptiles/fish:

Childhood dream:

Found on the Street:

Export:

Graffiti:

Lover:

Conspiracy:

Dress:

Hometown memory:

Notable person:

Outside your window, you find:

Today’s news headline:

Scrap from a letter:

Animal from a myth:

Story read to children at night:

You walk three minutes down an alley and you find:

You walk to the border and hear:
What you fear:

Picture on your city’s postcard:

Happy Friday to all of you! And a very happy half-way point in NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo!

Today’s featured participant is Flutterby’s NaPoWriMo, where the san san for Day Fourteen has a surrealist, quasi-mythical tone.

Our poet in translation today is Tanzania’s Euphrase Kezilahabi. Kezilahabi was instrumental in the development of free verse poetry in Swahili. You can find six of his poems at the link above, as well as four additional poems here.

And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Because today marks the halfway point in our 30-day sprint, today I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that incorporates the idea of doubles. You could incorporate doubling into the form, for example, by writing a poem in couplets. Or you could make doubles the theme of the poem, by writing, for example, about mirrors or twins, or simply things that come in pairs. Or you could double your doublings by incorporating things-that-come-in-twos into both your subject and form. Happy writing!

Wow! I can’t believe we’re now two weeks into NaPoWriMo!

Today’s featured participant is Judy Dykstra-Brown, who wrote thirteen unfortunate fortunes (plus one fortunate one), for Day 13’s fortune cookie prompt.

Our poet in translation for Day 14 is Egypt’s Mohamed Metwalli. The Brooklyn Rail has published a number of his poems in English translation: see here and here. Further poems are available from Jacket Magazine. You can also check out a recording of Metwalli in conversation with the poets Maged Zaher and Zhang Er, discussing their work and the problems of censorship.

And last but not least, our (optional) prompt! Today’s prompt comes to us from TJ Kearney, who invites us to try a seven-line poem called a san san, which means “three three” in Chinese (It’s also a term of art in the game Go). The san san has some things in common with the tritina, including repetition and rhyme. In particular, the san san repeats, three times, each of three terms or images. The seven lines rhyme in the pattern a-b-c-a-b-d-c-d.

Here’s an example san san from TJ’s blog, Bag of Anything:

Drinking the driven storm, the sturdy apple
Dances, between sky and earth, her spring-young leaves.
Knowing no purpose, knowing only season,
Her spring-young leaves, storm-driven, dapple
Earth and sky; all that my eye perceives
Dances. My eye drinks in the apple’s spring-
Young leaves, her dance that has no reason:
Only the storm, driving each dappled thing.

As you can see, three images or terms are repeated: the driven storm; the spring-young leaves; the dance, and the seven lines rhyme per the pattern given above. I hope you have fun giving the san san a try.

Happy writing!

P.S. — Some of you have pointed out that the san san has eight lines. Yes, you are right! And now you know one of the reasons I became a poet . . . because I am terrible at math!