Tag: tupelo press

you know you’re desperate when you pull out prose poem, list poem and ars poetica all in one day.

it’s possible that i’m thinking too much: it’s been known to happen. even still, i got out of today’s draft at least a few phrases i like — and they came after i let myself be playful. i have the most fun when i start with play earlier in the process, but every day is different!

oh, my! it was a struggle to get today’s poem for tupelo’s 30/30 project. in fact, i pooped out after the first eight lines — couldn’t figure out where to go next. and so i did what felt unthinkable at first: i just let it go. i let it end right there where it was.

i am still working in the modern sonnet form: 14 lines. today, although there’s internal rhyme, i let the end rhyme go. writing daily, things tend to fall away. and not just things like rhyme: eventually, guardedness, as well. for now, i am still self-conscious about cliche and the inadvisability of using the word “love” alongside stuff about the heart, of being too sentimental, of attempting to weave anatomy and comets and romance.

as you know from yesterday’s post about tupelo’s 30/30 project, i’m writing a poem-a-day to help tupelo with some fundraising. and isn’t today’s poem — “december sonnet #2: may your penis hurt when you make love” — worth a donation based on the title alone?!

so today is only day 1. i’ve done enough of these poem-a-day challenges to know day 1 is difficult… but not as much so as day 19. and so i’ll just keep chuggin’ away and crossing my fingers and hoping that if i write a real stinker you’ll understand.