November was declared National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) by a group in Oakland. I toyed with the November novel, but couldn't get it going. I completed the three-day novel a few years ago (there's a competition; I didn't win).
Some poets, feeling left out, or inspired (or both), decided since April was already National Poetry Month, why not make it NaPoWriMo? Write a poem a day! There are those who write a poem each day and post it to their blogs.
I've written a poem a day before. It's a useful exercise. It gets you past the feeling you don't have anything to say. Cuz you gotta put a few words down anyway.
But I think I've learned all I'm going to from the exercise. Plus I find that a pause in poetry writing actually recharges something. If several days have gone by since I wrote a poem the poem I write is often lively. Enforcing a silence is about as silly as forcing a noise, that is, one can learn from it, but hopefully one of the things you learn is you own best rhythm.
Rather than write a poem a day this month I decided to write one poem, each day one line. (Yes, I missed the first few days but things are going right along now.)
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