Tower Poetry Society

Promoting poetry sine 1951

Poem in my Pocket Day

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#NaPoWriMo is almost over. It doesn’t matter whether you will achieve 30 poems in 30 days, or you’ve just checked it out for the first time, or you now know of a fun resource to use if you ever want to get a month of motivation for writing poetry. I have managed to engage in poetry most days, by at least reading some of the poems that other people wrote inspired by the prompts at https://www.napowrimo.net/ or diving into the poetic resources shared throughout the month.

Today, Thursday, April 27, 2023 is Poem in My Pocket Day!

The League of Canadian Poets exists to support poets and poetry in Canada, just like we do at Tower Poetry Society Hamilton. Poem in Your Pocket Day is an international movement that encourages people to center poetry within their daily interactions. On PIYP Day, select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, coffee shops, street corners, and on social media using the hashtag #PocketPoem.

The site features a collection of poems to celebrate poetry in 2023. You can read them online, listen to an audio recording, or even print out a handy booklet to make sharing poems even easier! Check it out here: https://poets.ca/programs/pocketpoem/

The site includes links to French poems and many ways to celebrate. But really, any day can be Poem in Your Pocket Day!

Sing a Song about it with Emily Arrow: https://youtu.be/oxF0nB8ZzXQ

PS. PoARTry Dance #4 will be posted on Saturday, May 6!!

NaPoWriMo is coming!

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Have you ever NaPoWriMo-ed before??

What?    30 poems in 30 days

NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. Details here: https://www.napowrimo.net/about/

https://www.napowrimo.net/ posts an optional daily prompt to help you get inspired, features a different participant each day, as well as a daily poetry-related resource.

Here is an interesting teaser: https://www.napowrimo.net/napowrimo-glopowrimo-is-on-the-way/ I particularly love the second online prompt generator… Is generator (a) or (b) your style?? Maybe our choice says something about who each of us is as an artist, a human,… or, maybe it means nothing at all😊 And, the Eater of Meaning sucked me down the rabbit whole for a few many moments…

… Anyway, back to it…

My NaPoWriMo Experience…

I have dabbled with NaPowriMo for 10 years (2013, really?! Wow — Happy 10 years to me!). Have I ever managed a poem a day?… Well, only once in April 2020, the first official month of COVID, and I suspect many folks were actually able to do this one. What else were we doing?! Plus, there was no better way to deal with the turmoil of those crazy times. Sometimes, when April has been too busy, I’ve done another random month, like Poetember in 2018. I have always started NaPoWriMo all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed but sometimes I don’t make it further than that (I’m looking at you, 2019!). Usually, I make it through about half a month. I’ve learned to go with the flow. If not writing an actual poem each day, I might work on editing, or pairing an old poem with media, or doing Word Work activities (like Wordle). So, more accurately, I aim to spend at least 30 minutes on poetry work for 30 days. (In a perfect world, I do that already, but lets just say, I use Poetry Month as a much-needed poetry push in the right direction😊)

** If you feel like sharing your poems and prompts, you can do so in the TPS Facebook Group directly, or drop a link to your personal post. I, for example, often post to my site: https://www.everydayarteveryday.com/iblog.

Other resources/prompts…

Happy Writing, from the TPS Web Coordinator!