The first three days of NaPoMo I was away at a scholarly retreat center, so piece of cake. Then I returned home and it got a little more difficult, but not so much that I've thrown in the towel.
However, since we're sharing . . .
I wrote my day #4 poem on a bus, one of my favorite places to be an anonymous writer with all her creature comforts at her side (pen, notebook, satchel with lunch, water, other essentials).
In order to write my day #5 poem, I had to work on it in my car outside my daughter's school for five minutes, then finish it while my son and I waited for the pediatrician to walk in. Luckily I was channeling Richard Hugo, so I was loopy with risk and waxing on the edge of sentimental.
For day #6's attempt, I sat on a park bench alternately watching my daughter and her friend play on the swings and reading GC Waldrep's Archicembalo for inspiration.
Note: I don't know what it's like where you live, but not many moms come to the park with a notebook and a book of poems, all ready to have it out with words right there by the monkey bars. If I'd had time to notice, I might have registered a few stares, but actually I doubt it as thankfully there's not a whole lot of judgment going down in my 'hood.
I am trying, in a sorta 12-step way, to not think about how I am going to write a poem a day for the rest of the month, but tomorrow I'm planning to write my poem at the coffee shop where I hang out for an hour while my daughter's in art class.
Okay, won't plan any further than that . . . and in the meantime I can look forward to my reward for writing a poem tomorrow (a lemon cupcake!!).
For years I've looked on in admiration as so many of my poet friends do the poem-a-day thing for the entire month of April. It feels good to be among them at long last.
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3 comments:
Yay, Martha! Keep it up! I did it 2 years in a row and am taking a break this year. I totally understand the playground thing, though. When I took a notebook to write in, I don't think any of the parents ever noticed me writing. In our 'hood, all the parents at the playground seemed to have cell phones attached to their heads and were oblivious to me.
Yay for you!
And can I admit to just a tiny bit of Schadenfreude (sp?). While you were posting all your very inspriational posts about researching your daily poems, I was scribbling whatever I could cough up on the bus. So news of you being outside your routine is both comforting AND STILL INSPIRING.
You rock!
Joannie--nothing wrong with scribbling on the bus. Quite admirable, in fact. I have had a hard time the last couple of days. I hope to write two poems today to make up for yesterday when I had to take my son to the doctor (he has bronchitis). Maybe a poem about bronchitis is in order . . . poor kid.
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