Poetry Ahead: NaPoWriMo

Yup. It's April and that means National Poetry Month and NaPoWriMo.

I'll be doing NaPoWriMo again, but I won't officially sign up and won't be publishing every poem here. It's not because of my worrying about the 'previously published' stigma if I post a poem here then submit it to a journal.

No, this is more about using this challenge (to write a poem every day this month) to grow as a poet, to experiment, to free myself and be bold. I'm not sure I can even approach freedom & boldness if I'm thinking about an audience at that delicate stage in my poetry process, that stage when a poem is newly born and just opening its eyes, taking first breath.

That said, I won't start NaPoWriMo without posting a  poem at all. So here's what I'm working on today. Seems a bit like notes for how I want to proceed this month.




once i dreamed my skin was peeling
in long strips - delicate, translucent -

and i carefully saved each one
intending to make something with them.

when i woke i knew it was about

how every day i wake up new
and tender

how the currency of my old life
is spent on art

how i will spend my whole life
becoming.    
                             ----Zann Carter (2012)



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