Sunday

So, I'm not going to post a poem for today.

I have stuck to the challenge and have written at least one poem every day, but I'm not satisfied with some that I have written. For example, the one about writing a poem "about something that happened 15 years ago" from Big Tent Poetry. I wrote a poem to that prompt, but I'm not going to post it. It's autobiographical and personal in a way that won't appeal to anyone else. It can just sit in my poetry journal. And, frankly, it's just not a very good poem.

Writing a poem a day has not been the challenging part about NaPoWriMo, the poem-a-day challenge, whatever you want to call it. So far, I've had plenty of prompts and other ideas to get me started and I have written a poem a day. And no one's going to judge me or criticize me because I didn't write a poem every day. I'm challenging myself to write a poem a day, but I've also given myself permission to be happy with writing 30 poems in 30 day, which I'm well on the way to doing because I've often written more than one poem in a day.

The first day of April was a day I was off work on Spring Break, and then we had a weekend. I had three days to get a head start on writing poems. I think I wrote six poems over those three days.

What's challenging is the quality issue. Last year, I was more nervous about posting poems on this blog and as comments at Poetic Asides, where I got started with this poem-a-day thing. But then partway through the month I got over myself and began posting poems. And the community of people reading and writing poems that I have encountered has been positive and supportive. So, this year, I had no problem posting poems. And yet, there's still some part of me that won't let some poems see the light of day. I'm not saying that everything I've posted is good; I know that some are better than others, but they're good enough for me to put out there for others to read.

I did post a poem for Saturday before I left for the weekend, but it was one I had written the day before. I did write a poem Saturday, but I'm unhappy with it, so I'm not going to post it as Sunday's poem. I even worked on it more on Sunday, but it's still not there - and I'm not sure it will ever be. It's a response to the prompt from Big Tent Poetry to write a poem "with lungs in it".

And then, Sunday night, after getting home, I ended up writing four poems. So, I think I just needed the time away, to let things percolate in my brain for a bit. Because, the words just flowed, and now I have a couple of short poems ready to post for today, Monday. I've got another that I need to let sit for a day, but which I will probably post. And the last is one that needs some work, some structuring, and may be worth posting.

So, thanks to everyone who has been reading my poems. I've read some wonderful poems myself so far this month, and I'm having a great April filled with poetry.

And I will get caught up on reading and commenting on poems. I was so tired last night after writing, that I didn't even go online.