Day Ten

How about that, everyone? Today we are one-third of the way through Na/GloPoWriMo 2019!

Today’s featured participant is Small Burdens, where Day Nine’s Sei Shonagons-style prompt resulted in two lovely lists of “Things That Pull Asunder” and Things That Bind.”

Our video resource for today is this recording of Randy Rieman reading a poem at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Perhaps you did not know that cowboy poetry exists, much less that there is a big conference for it each year? Well, hang on to your six-gallon hats, because Mr. Rieman is about to blow you away with his rendition of this S. Omar Barker poem, which is awash in regional and dialect phrasing.

Our prompt for the day (optional, as always), is also rooted in dialect and regional phrasing. In her poem “Sunshower,” Natalie Shapero finds inspiration in a rather colorful phrase used in Mississippi and Alabama to describe the situation in which it rains while the sun is shining.

Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that starts from a regional phrase, particularly one to describe a weather phenomenon. You may remember one from growing up, bu if you’re having trouble getting started, perhaps one of these regional U.S. phrases used to describe warm weather will inspire you. Or you might enjoy these French terms for cold weather, or even these expressions from the British Isles that are mostly for the very British phenomenon of rain.

Happy writing!