It’s that time of year again: NaPoWriMo!!! National Poetry Writing Month (optionally GloPoWriMo ~ Global Poetry Writing Month) comes every April and challenges poets (and anyone else who wants to take a shot at it) to write (and post) a poem every day through all of April. That’s 30 poems in 30 days.
Learn more on the semi-official NaPoWriMo website, where you’ll find other participants and their posts, daily prompts to help you along, and links to other poetry writing resources. You can announce your own posts there each day, as well.
This year, with all this self-isolation time on my hands, I’m going to double-down on the challenge and attempt to write two poems a day. Anyone out there with me?
The themes for these anthologies/websites/magazines include stories on LGBTQ lives, the invisible world, corporate shadows (inspired by the net neutrality rulings), anthropomorphic fiction, holiday crime and crime by bumbling sidekicks, work and play, deadly bargains, curiosity and the curious, addiction, and talking to strangers. Some of these also accept nonfiction and poetry. Many of them pay writers. Also see this list for some more deadlines coming up.
Welcome to the September 15th, 2015 edition of the NWW Photo Prompt!
The New West Writers Photo Prompt is a twice-monthly challenge for writers of all genres. It’s easy to participate — and we encourage everyone to do so. Just spend a moment with the image above and write whatever comes to mind. A couple of lines, or a couple thousand words. Prose, non-fiction, poetry, even a six word story, if you like.
There are no winners (we’re all writers sharing our words) and no rules. Well, one — be respectful with your words.
You can announce your post with a link in a comment below, or if you link to this page from your post, we’ll publish the trackback link in the comment section of this page. Add an “nww photo prompt” tag to your post and we’ll also provide a link to your response in the next challenge. This post outlines these few simple steps.
To get you going, one of our writing group’s members will have the first go at the prompt. Base your post on theirs or go a completely different way.
In the beginning
I traveled to alien places
Where I learned a lot
About the world
Until I realized
I was the alien
And then I began to learn
What’s important
What’s me
What’s not me
Happy writing!
About the photograph:
In 1998 I bicycled 6,000 kilometers across China. In many ways, China is arguably the most alien place I’ve travelled to.
At least, that’s what I thought, until I reached Xinjiang province, AKA, The Uyghur Autonomous Region.
You probably didn’t realize that the country’s population isn’t entirely Chinese. A sizeable proportion consists of what the Chinese government politely refers to as “minority nationalities”.
Xinjiang is, by far, the country’s largest province. And though it is, especially by Chinese standards, very sparsely populated, the majority population is Muslim, predominantly the Uyghur people.
This photograph was taken along a market street in Kashgar, far-western Xinjiang, just a hop-skip-and-a-steep-climb up to Pakistan over the Karakorum Highway. There’s a butcher on the right, a vegetable stand next to it, and a street food vendor standing at his smokey barbecue, likely serving lamb kebabs.
The Pineapple ManHere are the posts written in response to the September 1st NWW Photo Prompt:
Welcome to the September 1st, 2015 edition of the NWW Photo Prompt!
The New West Writers Photo Prompt is a twice-monthly challenge for writers of all genres. It’s easy to participate — and we encourage everyone to do so. Just spend a moment with the image below and write whatever comes to mind. A couple of lines, or a couple thousand words. Prose, non-fiction, poetry, even a six word story, if you like.
Long Lasting Fruit Flavour
There are no winners (we’re all writers sharing our words) and no rules. Well, one — be respectful with your words.
You can announce your post with a link in a comment below, or if you link to this page from your post, we’ll publish the trackback link in the comment section of this page. Add an “nww photo prompt” tag to your post and we’ll also provide a link to your response in the next challenge. This post outlines these few simple steps.
To get you going, one of our writing group’s members will have the first go at the prompt. Base your post on theirs or go a completely different way.
Long Lasting Fruit Flavour
by Jen Ryan
and if we’d never met
we wouldn’t have this
these arms, this hat
this table, these years
how silly that I would never have thought to
how silly that you did
how silly that the world brought us together
from this corner and that
in a way that can’t make sense
but it all comes together
in one perfect mess
if we didn’t have this
we would never have met
and if we’d never met
we wouldn’t have this
Happy writing!
Near and Far
Here are the posts written in response to the August 15th NWW Photo Prompt:
I start I wake wet
With sweat as was my wont
For two weeks now. Two faces
Yellow in the candlelight, my father and my brother
Look down on me and I read their eyes.
One says ‘Come’ Continue reading →
I have always taken
the road most traveled,
safe and familiar.
As I traveled these roads
they have become
more and more narrow.
I wish I had chosen
that other road
stepped into mystery
and adventure.
I can not go back,
the road behind
has disappeared.
I wait for another
fork in the road
and hope I have
the courage to
explore the unknown.
newwestwriters.com 