NaPoWriMo Day 1 Early Bird Prompt for April 1st

NAPOWRIMO   BEGINS . . . .

We are starting NaPoWriMo a little early this year.

I’m sharing the first prompt 28 hours early because you might want to beat a deadline and enter your first  prompt poem in the contest that Rattle is having.

Spread the news that this blog will be encouraging you with daily prompts to be part of National Poetry Month’s NaPoWriMo challenge.  The challenge is to write a poem each and every day of April.  You can add to the challenge and fun by using prompts to write your poems.  You can certainly use a combination of prompts and free writes to inspire your writing.  I like to think out of the box and challenge myself to write things I normally wouldn’t write.  It sometimes leads to poems that are worth working on, revising, editing and keeping.

A great resource for all things NaPoWriMo is Maureen Thorson’s website.  She began posting her prompts and poems on her blog back in 2003.  Napowrimo.net story here   This PoetryIsEverything blog will be posting prompts and encouragements every day in April to help inspire you to take up the NaPoWriMo challenge.

I will post the rough drafts of the poems I write and I encourage others to be brave enough to post their rough drafts on their own blogs and/or facebook or other social media site.   There’s no cost or even obligation as to how you participate.   I know the experience can be challenging but it will help give your writing muscles a worthwhile workout that just might improve your writing habits and disciplines.

Some of my prompts will be easy, others more difficult and I’ll also try to post some links to other sites that offer challenges for NaPoWriMo too.   Use the prompts as an inspiration to write every day or if you are so inclined as a challenge or mountain to begin climbing  The idea is to write a completely new and original poem every day during the month of April.  Some will be better than others and what you post will be rough drafts that most likely will need revising, editing and a little time to become ‘keepers’.

DAY 1  – NaPoWriMo Prompt for  April 1, 2015  

Let’s begin the Napowrimo challenge by writing an ekphrasis poem.  Traditionally this is a poem inspired by a work of art or photograph.   Right now one of the best poetry magazines RATTLE has an ekphrasis challenge contest going on with winners’ poems to be published online AND winning poets will win $25 bucks each.  (Really… it is not an April Fool’s prank!).

So… if you write your poem before midnight (pacific Standard Time) on March 31st you can also submit it to Rattle.  You can also share the poem on your own personal blog but if you are entering the challenge DO NOT share the poem beyond your own blog or you’ll possibly, (probably) be disqualified from the contest.

I will post the poem I am writing on April 2^nd.   I’ll post the April 2^nd prompt on April 1^st!

So here’s the link to the photo I suggest you use to inspire your write:   Rattle’s Ekphrasis Challenge Photo by Judy Keown

I believe you must submit (for free) your poem for the contest before midnight 3/31/15  PST (West Coast Time).  NOTE: Rattle usually permits posting of poems on personal blogs… but don’t share your official contest poem entry on other websites or you’ll make yourself not eligible.  And if your poem is featured at Rattle be prepared to edit and replace your poem sharing with a link to Rattle (because it’s the right thing to do… I think anyway…).

For those living anywhere near Western Washington you might want to look at the new Poetry Day of the Week page I posted that lists regularly scheduled readings by the day of the week.   My next Poetry Northwest update will appear in between the NaPoWriMo posts on or about April 6^th!