April is National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), aka Global Poetry Writing Month (GloPoWriMo), when people all over the world write a poem a day throughout the month. It's a brilliant chance to try out all sorts of different poems and approaches. It's also a brilliant way to give your mind a break from its worries and go into that floaty curious poetry place – which is especially valuable at the moment.
Heaps of websites provide daily prompts to inspire you and this year I'll be joining them. I've mapped out a gleeful array of prompts for you, alternating between form prompts (a type of poem to try, eg a sonnet) and content prompts (a subject to write about). Each form prompt will also give you suggestions for what to write about and each content prompt will also suggest a form or two you could use. I've been writing a poem a day since April 2018, give or take a month's break, and I find it really helps to have both a form and a content-idea.
Bearing in mind what a difficult time it is at the moment, I've made sure that all the content prompts will help you think about something else for a bit, so you really can take a daily mental break from it all. It's a wonderful thing to be able to slip into that dreamy, absorbed flow-state in writing, half unconscious-daydream and half intense concentration. Carefully chosen content prompts can help you do that without falling down a rabbit-hole of worry and rumination. We all need a refreshing break from time to time. And obviously, like all NaPoWriMo prompts, they're completely optional!
The prompts will be posted on this blog from 1 April, so if you want them emailed to you each day, you can subscribe here:
Meanwhile, you can read these tips on writing a poem a day and look forward to the poems that April will bring.
