NaPoWriMo 2026 Discussion Thread

[Tallyfire]

April 15th:

K. Siva Reddy’s poem, “A Love Song Between Two Generations,” weaves together repetitions, questions, and unexpected similes with plain language. The overall effect is both intimate and emotional, producing a long-form meditation on what love is, what it means, and how it acts. Today, we’d like you to write your own poem that muses on love, but isn’t a traditional love poem in the sense of expressing love between romantic partners.

 

[Tallyfire]

April 16th:

In “Ocean,” Robinson Jeffers delivers an almost oracular, scriptural description of the sea not just as a geographical phenomenon, but a sort of being – old, wise, profound, and able to teach those who want to learn. Today, try writing a poem in which you describe something that cannot speak, and what it has taught or told you.

 

[Tallyfire]

Ocean is a poem I think I’ll have to read again and again. Wow.

One thing I’m enjoying this month is seeing my understanding of what poetry is (and isn’t) change. I’ve always wanted to read more about it and NaPoWriMo is a lovely resource for that.

 

[Woof]

Ocean is a poem I think I’ll have to read again and again. Wow.

One thing I’m enjoying this month is seeing my understanding of what poetry is (and isn’t) change. I’ve always wanted to read more about it and NaPoWriMo is a lovely resource for that.

I agree. There's a lot to love in it and a little extra in each read. What surprises me most is it was written in the 1920s by a guy who died in the 1960s but it sounds like it was born of that beatnik era at the earliest, or even influenced by it.

I think it points to one aspect of what you were saying about feeling your understanding of the nature of poetry shifting the more you explore. For me, it's recognising the simplification of poetry into eras of style is just a retroactive tidying up of fashions through history and is in no way definitive.

 

[Tallyfire]

April 17th:

Sergio Raimondi’s poem, “Today Matsuo Basho Cooks,” plays on the following haiku by (you guessed it), Matsuo Basho:

Crimson pepper pod!
Add two pairs of wings, and look—
darting dragonfly.

For today’s challenge, write a poem in which you respond to a favorite poem by another poet.

 

[Tallyfire]

What surprises me most is it was written in the 1920s by a guy who died in the 1960s but it sounds like it was born of that beatnik era at the earliest, or even influenced by it.

I don’t know anything about beatnik style or eras of poetry, but I was also surprised by its age! I would have guessed much later.

 

[Woof]

I don’t know anything about beatnik style or eras of poetry, but I was also surprised by its age! I would have guessed much later.

I know a little from broken bits of formal study that honestly almost completely put me off poetry. I've been having a bit of a poke around though with renewed curiosity and found this site interesting: beatdom

 

[Socks Fox]

I know a little from broken bits of formal study that honestly almost completely put me off poetry. I've been having a bit of a poke around though with renewed curiosity and found this site interesting: beatdom

What's interesting is the irony of the beatnik scene becoming a prominent and exclusionary group within academia. If you've ever encountered the clique that loves to exclude others due to their inferiorities some of these groups are the archetype. They have become the very thing they sought to rebel against through enlightened and intellectual superiority.