Just an idea I've had, but it doesn't go beyond that right now. If anyone's interested or has any suggestions on a format or how it might work, shout up.
Isn't it national poetry writing month, this month? I think the NaNoWriMo crowd holds the same sort of thing this month for poetry, with discounts on writing programs and whatnot. Personally, I don't abide by that sort of thing because I don't enjoy pumping out poems for the sake of the day. I much rather go with what's been on my mind at the time, and jot a poem down out of that train of thought. Sometimes that's a poem in a month, sometimes it's multiple a day. What you could do is layout all the different structural styles of poems in a list, and cross them off day-by-day as you get to them. Then you'd have some experience in taming a lot of difficult structural forms. But some of those are generally too difficult for a single day, such as a decent sestina. I don't know. Hopefully you come up with some sort of ideal format for it. I'd like to maybe give it a try just for the challenge to see how far I get, though when I force things I feel I waste a lot of my time.
Because we wouldn't necessarily be posting a poem a day, would we? I know what you mean. The idea is a tad hypocritical of me anyway, as I've always shunned the idea of forcing yourself to write. It is something one could do alone, as a sort of discipline, but I thought having others doing the same thing may be a slight encouragement and way of avoiding procrastination.
I wrote one once. It felt like I was solving a puzzle more than writing a poem. I think I managed it in a day, but don't think it was any good.
That's what I mean. You could finish a lot of these in a day, but they'd mostly be crap. I'm all for experiments, but difficult poem styles being experimented only for a single day produces more wasted time than actual product I think. Some may just have that divine hand, I guess, but I don't. Definitely not with strict rules like that form.
Perhaps this is just me being contrarian, but I reckon challenges like this really help sharpen up a skill. I've not tried it with poetry, but I've tried it with language (setting a very low bare minimum and reaching that daily for a long time) and it has worked well. Note: I've not actually taken a test after this, but I do feel more confident and able to converse. Maybe, because poetry is an output based skill (where language is best learned from being able to input data better), this rule doesn't apply. I've written very few poems. But isn't there still a "landscape" in writing poetry that experience (even arbitrary) can help traverse?
But it was never suggested we write anything as complicated as sestinas. Even a haiku would count as your 'poem a day'. Indeed. Hypocritical of me again, but there is an argument for saying a crap poem helps hone your skills, far more than an idea for a never-written poem ever will.
I totally recommend writing a sestina a day for a month. I did this in grad school and it totally changed my relationship with words. I adore the complexity of many forms. Why not master a few? Take a month with a form and really understand it. I also did this with sonnets, but, personally, I think a sestina is much more fun. And, of course, they are not going to come out great. I argue no poem is great on the day it's first written. Poetry takes as much revision as anything else if not more. I think this is about dedication, persistence and learning. It's really not a bad idea for any one to try in my opinion.
I could see a month working on a single form being a decent way to acquaint yourself with a specific area. I may give that a try. I imagine that led down some interesting paths for the form in your mind.
I've heard this so many times but I'm not altogether sure I agree. It seems more like an assumption to me. The truth is we have no idea how long it took the 'greats' to write a poem. How do we know they didn't write many of them in one sitting?
I think I've posted elsewhere that Tom Paxton set a goal of writing one song every day. Most of them were junk, but maybe one in a hundred was good enough to perform. The idea was to get into the habit of expressing himself in songwriting almost as a reflex.
I'm all for it. Back in January I was pretty much producing at least one poem per day. Exhausting, but the product (good or bad) is there, plus I've learned how not to do it. So what about write three per day, and publish / post just one here?
Well each could write as many as they please, of course. Personally I very much doubt I've got three per day in me. One may be a struggle if this idea ever came to fruition.
What about doing it for a week, instead of a month? The only 'rule' would be to present 7 poems at the end. Any excuse is good to get some poetry done / just write it.
It's an idea, but would people be willing to wade through seven of another person's poems? I'd also feel obliged to stick to this and while it seemed like a good idea at the time, I'm not sure I could.
