NaPoWriMo 2026 Discussion Thread

[Woof]

I see what you mean . Those read a bit like listening to Night Vale, like trying to populate a strange little village tableau, especially the second one. I tried to get a cinquain chain going last year that had significantly more fluidity to it. I've participated in haiku ones before too that use last lines to link a string together. It's maybe not so traditional but I like it.

 

[Tallyfire]

April 23rd:

And speaking of forms, today’s (optional) prompt takes its inspiration from Kiki Petrosino’s loose villanelle, “Nursery.” Try your hand today at your own take on a villanelle, and have the poem end on a question.

 

[Pik]

"Our life is different now we’ve drunk the tea"
I'm drinking my third coffee this morning (not too strong though), drinking more tea sounds like a decent plan.

 

[Tallyfire]

I tried to get a cinquain chain going last year that had significantly more fluidity to it.

It reads really nicely. I'd like to pick that up once NaPoWriMo is over.

 

[Tallyfire]

April 24th:

In her poem, “The Flying Nightdress,” Mandakranta Sen describes something fantastical and strange that occurs while the rest of the world is asleep. The imagery of the poem is dreamlike, but the situation it describes is otherwise presented quite straightforwardly. Today, we challenge you to write your own poem that takes place at night, and describes something magical or strange that happens but that no one is awake (or around) to notice.

 

[Tallyfire]

I really liked the villanelle poem yesterday but can't get anything coherent together when I try it (even using the form more loosely). It feels like putting a puzzle together.

 

[Woof]

I really liked the villanelle poem yesterday but can't get anything coherent together when I try it (even using the form more loosely). It feels like putting a puzzle together.

I'm struggling with it too. I think, I hope, the key is to come up with a rhyming couplet first that will be the conclusion, the last two lines. The message in that will set the tone/structure for the rest of the poem. And make it an easy rhyme with lots of words to choose from It's a big ask for one day though.

 

[Socks Fox]

I really liked the villanelle poem yesterday but can't get anything coherent together when I try it (even using the form more loosely). It feels like putting a puzzle together.

Villanelles are one of my favourite types of poems. I used them for a number of my narrative pieces. It is a trecet base (3 lines) which tosses a lot of people off stride because they are used to rhyming couplets, not dual rhyme schemes. A scheme should work like a dominant hand, and never pick a scheme you cannot find at least four word for. B is subtle and conjugations are allowed. Lines can be adapt slightly for coherence. This form is long and very technical, but awesome.

By the Light of Lost Stars

Climb fast, quiet as a moon shadow at the rise of the Bleak Tide
toes mutter secrets to the jagged stone stairs that go too high.
And at the topmost plinth, sits a fox, mourning as his stars died.

Deepest tints of the soul’s despair bleed into his pilled sock hide,
ears drooped with the weight of the weary, as sleep comes nigh—
Climb fast, poke a hole in the sky, mold it, find the Firefly Tide.

Socks fox bereft. His stars, those stories, nonsense voices chide.
Climb fast. Hold true. For he waits, listens for a flint edged sigh
to find the plinth where he keeps vigil for a star that refuses to die.

One star left, a world being consumed by torrents of injured pride.
Look to the sky as it weeps for its lost stars. Find the star. Try—
Climb fast. Feel the face of the stones, heed the thrall of the Tide.

Catch a glimpse of Turtle’s gleam, take a leap, and catch a ride.
Shut your eyes, take the light of lost stars, trace stories in the sky.
Touch the plinth, there the socks fox waits where his stars died.

In fits and starts, star by star, Lores in the constellations still hide.
Touch a tale, set the stars alight. Blow a wish on a dandelion sigh.
Those words, his stars, Star Socks Fox shine, reset the Firefly Tide.
Ride, hold tight to Turtle, rise. A constellation that will never die.

 

[Tallyfire]

Villanelles are one of my favourite types of poems. I used them for a number of my narrative pieces. It is a trecet base (3 lines) which tosses a lot of people off stride because they are used to rhyming couplets, not dual rhyme schemes.

This one is quite loose, isn't it? I didn't see any real repeating lines, just repeating themes/movements, which is also a nice way to do it. The very close -ide/-ie rhymes also give the poem a lovely feel.

I think, I hope, the key is to come up with a rhyming couplet first that will be the conclusion, the last two lines.

That was what I tried! Those two lines have to carry a lot if they go through mostly identical (although I didn't try to get them to rhyme). I might try another one with Socks Fox's approach later.

 

[Socks Fox]

Misread something...If you can end on a noun such as a place or a verb that can be a noun like sound this gives you a lot more flexibility with a line.

Night
Air
Line
Toll

These are major schemes. A wide variety of words. Minor schemes, are like playing in a minor key, tricky, but if you get it right, really cool.

My piece is full rhyme, not just a conjugation like an s or ed.

 

[Tallyfire]

April 25th:

In her poem, “The Apple Tree in Blossom,” Melissa Kwasny strings together several fantastical metaphors for the apple tree, before shifting into exclamations, definitions, and a series of nimble, tonal shifts – and seeming changes in topic – before circling around back to the apple tree. Today’s challenge asks you to write your own poem in which you use at least three metaphors for a single thing, include an exclamation, ruminate on the definition of a word, and come back in the closing line to the image or idea with which you opened the poem.