NaPoWriMo 2026 Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Homer Potvin
- Start date
Well, here's the early bird prompt:
Start by reading Katie Naughton’s poem, “Debt Ritual: Oysters.” Now, write your own poem in which you refer to a specific writer or artist (or work of literature/art) and make a declarative statement about want or desire. Set the poem in a particular, people-filled place, like a restaurant, bus station, museum, school, etc.
It's very specific. I was picturing single words and phrases for each day. If all the prompts are like this, I'll probably just take them very loosely as inspiration.
Start by reading Katie Naughton’s poem, “Debt Ritual: Oysters.” Now, write your own poem in which you refer to a specific writer or artist (or work of literature/art) and make a declarative statement about want or desire. Set the poem in a particular, people-filled place, like a restaurant, bus station, museum, school, etc.
It's very specific. I was picturing single words and phrases for each day. If all the prompts are like this, I'll probably just take them very loosely as inspiration.
defaux
May contain traces of purple
Active Member
Winner: February Flash Fiction
Winner: February Short Story
Winner: January Short Story
Winner: December Short Story
That's a heckuva prompt... are they giving you so much to consider as options?
Think I'd rather go with...
Woof
Active Member
It is a very heavy prompt to begin on and also wildly vague at the same time. Desires, crowded spaces... not something I'd normally consider willingly for my words. Will have to let it percolate a little longer.
There's a nice symmetry in it in what they want and what it costs and that slight feeling of confusion, I think, about whether it is really their own desires they're feeding. Some of the line breaks are a little too much work for me though without a little punctuation too.
There's a nice symmetry in it in what they want and what it costs and that slight feeling of confusion, I think, about whether it is really their own desires they're feeding. Some of the line breaks are a little too much work for me though without a little punctuation too.
I think I'll just save my creative energies for tomorrow.
So... you had already been planning to write a poem set in a people-filled location and referring to a specific writer/artist/piece of art?
Riddley Walker
Active Member
Just remember that using prompts is optional. There's no rule around using a prompt. On the other hand you can let the prompt take you anywhere. It might just he one sentence or even one word. Don't get caught up in trying to satisfy an arbitrary demand.
Socks Fox
Member
Do not take things quite so literally, more on abstract principle. You were going to do the dishes, then someone say, 'Do the dishes.' You were already going to do that and now you're being told to? Nope. Not doing it now even if it means starving because there are no small spoons.
Prompts are okay for practice or a competition, but for something as massive as NaPoem, it sucks all the joy out of the creative endeavor.
The first year I did NaPoem, one of the people running it tried to force all participants to use a prompt rubric. It was awful. I said forget it and did my own thing after day three because the prompt specifies you had to use iambic pentameter about items on your desk. That was all you could write about.
Sorry but that isn't how my creative brain works. I'll write a poem, no problem, but that is a stupid topic.
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Pik
Active Member
Yeah as if the inner confusion of feelings and wants influenced the structure of the poem and had the lines all mixed up.
I'll let the location speak, the location can be a character too.
I promise not to flog anybody for ignoring prompts...
If need be. Hallelujah!
I'll post the (highly optional) prompts here if nobody minds. I think it's nice to read the poems if nothing else.
The tanka is an ancient Japanese poetic form. In contemporary English versions, it often takes the shape of a five-line poem with a 5 / 7 / 5 / 7 / 7 syllable-count – kind of like a haiku that decided to keep going.
Some recent examples include L. Lamar Wilson’s “Aubade Tanka,” Tarik Dobbs’s “Commuter Tanka,” and Antoinette Brim-Bell’s “Insomniac Tankas.” And here’s a sort of parody tanka by Paul Violi, which starts out with the kind of cliché image that you might find in a thousand imitations of classic Japanese poetry, and ends up somewhere very different. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own tanka – or multi-tanka poem. Theme and tone are up to you, but try to maintain the five-line stanza and syllable count.
I like the idea of the tanka. It seems it's quite broad in theme. Aubade was lovely.
The tanka is an ancient Japanese poetic form. In contemporary English versions, it often takes the shape of a five-line poem with a 5 / 7 / 5 / 7 / 7 syllable-count – kind of like a haiku that decided to keep going.
Some recent examples include L. Lamar Wilson’s “Aubade Tanka,” Tarik Dobbs’s “Commuter Tanka,” and Antoinette Brim-Bell’s “Insomniac Tankas.” And here’s a sort of parody tanka by Paul Violi, which starts out with the kind of cliché image that you might find in a thousand imitations of classic Japanese poetry, and ends up somewhere very different. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own tanka – or multi-tanka poem. Theme and tone are up to you, but try to maintain the five-line stanza and syllable count.
I like the idea of the tanka. It seems it's quite broad in theme. Aubade was lovely.
Woof
Active Member
I liked Aubade too. It had a lovely set of imagery and seemed to incorporate the turn really well. I couldn't help but get inspired by the buzzards, thinking of the red kites that are everywhere where I live and have such an awesome keening cry. The insomniac ones felt a bit too cryptic to me but I liked the parody one. I appreciate that kind of plain silliness. There's definitely a craft to the story telling in them that's going to take me a lot longer to dig into.
