#napowrimo 2021 day 20

[peaamlipoetrydoctor]

Day Twenty-One /// NaPoWri----NO

Today's literary journal is The Night Heron Barks - the Winter 2021 issue at the time of NaPoWriMo and having just checked out TNHB's website, I see that they recently launched the Spring 2022 issue too.

Checking the list of poets in this issue, I see a few names of poets I follow on Poetry Twitter. Which explains I think why this journal sounds vaguely (or, indeed, VERY) familiar even though turned out I wasn't following their account - now corrected.

Michael Montlack's poem - link above - is one of the original NaPo recommendations and to the extent I understand it (= somewhat, not fully), there's a clear, melancholy I-was-young-and-got-old-by-mistake tone to the piece.

Which incidentally matches extremely well to my own midlife ponderings. And this thread I stumbled across earlier today - I'm showing it as a picture rather than a link so you can't click through, but basically the original post, which is being rebutted here, said something along the lines of - Unsolicited career advice: Work yr butt off in your 20s if you want to make something of your life.

Otherwise, this is a slightly complicated prompt - which I went for 100% last time and am planning to be a little more, ahem, relaxed about this time... more on that later!

#not napowrimo #poetry #poetic #napowrimo #revision

[prasannawrites]

resilient

you smell of poetry again. the world has grinded to a halt, and you smell of poetry. a child was born a year ago, and knows nothing of outside, to her the whole world consists of just her mom, dad, and those four little walls, and yet you smell of poetry. the world has left that man newly widowed with no children, his only living relative is on the other side of the world and they seldom talk, but you smell of poetry. that doctor you once made small talk in the elevator of your cousin’s building, has just pronounced her sixtieth death this week but she stopped counting months ago, and you still smell of poetry.

tell me –

how have you not lost your voice?

#poetry #poems #napowrimo #napowrimo day 20 #napowrimo 2021 day 20 #covid poetry #spilled ink #inkstay #poetryclub13 #poetryportal #poetselixir #poeticstories #writerscreed #writingthestorm #twcpoetry #writtenconsiderations #smitten by poetry #deadwatered #recognizingthevoiceless #my writing #prasannawrites #napowrimo 2021

[creatingnikki]

Dear 25 year old me,

I’m certain that past versions of me have written to you before. But I’m writing this to you to request, rather warn, you to ignore their words. To them, someone who is 25 felt like a proper adult. Like someone who has their life figured out. So they expected the same out of you. Now that I have lived through my early 20s, I understand why 20s are not roaring nor golden. Also, I think younger versions of me did fall trap to measuring the purpose of life in terms of conventional successes and milestones. As you can see, they had some learning ahead. 

It would be typical to use our generation’s confusing humour and say that you’re having a quarter-life crisis. But that wouldn’t be fair to me and the ones before us. We have dealt with our share of crisis irrespective of the age and it was never once glorified. Not like that would make it any better. I read once in a YouTube comment, ‘I have a happy personality and a sad soul’. Why didn’t we come across that when we were a student? All those awkward introductions where you had to say “one sentence about who you are” would have been a cakewalk. What else could be more accurate? 

Take it as poetic romanticization or just how I really feel, but I know our soul is old. Not because we are wise - we are certainly but that’s not the point - but because I have come to realize that the more nuance one can see, the sadder they feel. And that ability to see things beyond what they appear is not all too common. Let me go a step further down the cocky lane and say, what’s rarer is to feel what you see. Many will observe from a theoretical standpoint and feel detached. I am tired of forming narratives of what abilities are beneficial and which only seem so. I guess abilities are abilities and it’s on you to figure out how to balance them for your own good. Think of Elsa. Think of Hulk. 

I digress but you know that comes naturally to me. You’re 25. You’re listening to Palette by IU, aren’t you? What are your thoughts when the song says ‘you’re beautifully bloomed’? What comes after bloom? Perish? But you are not a flower. So you may perish aspects of you only to have newer ones grow that suit you. It’s been a while since you’ve stopped writing letters to others. Sure, once in a while you sway. But it’s been forever since you’ve stopped asking someone to write one to you. You’ve learned, haven’t you? Hearts cannot be coxed into coming to you. They can’t be charmed, manipulated, made perfectly rational cases to. The heart has to come on its own to you. And even then there are conditions. Watch the kdrama Because This Is My First Life again but maybe wait for two more years? Bloom anew. 

At 24, I have much to be grateful for and much to fear. I do my best to choose gratitude day after day. Fear will stay, you just don’t need to give it the stage. At 25, I hope you continue to capture all the things that make your heart full and all things that empty it out by the way of your words. Nothing else has ever called to you. You don’t do things until you’re 100% motivated so naturally, you don’t do much. Who cares? This is not your first life or your last. Achievements here are like money in hell. You frantically think gathering it is going to benefit you and then you’re shocked to realize that it’s the most meaningless thing. I do not know the purpose of life but surely joy and contentment can’t be too far from the answer. 

Love Always, 24 year old me.

#letters to myself #napowrimo day 10 #twc poetry #writtenconsiderations #inkstay #writerscreed #poeticstories #poetryportal #napowrimo #napowrimo 2021 #letters to me #letters #notes to self #growing up #IU #palette iu #adulting #20s #welcome to your twenties #early twenties #twenties #hello my twenties #things to remember #spilled ink #writers on tumblr #poets on tumblr #creatingnikki

[writinginnorthnorfolk]

Swimming Wild

The evening tide is syrupy, strange ripples shivering. It laps at banks and licks salty rocks, as if it’s haunted. We dive in the river. It ties us in intricate knots. Kim M. Russell, 20th April 2021 Image by Christoper Osten on Unsplash My response to NaPoWriMo Day Twenty We’re two-thirds of the way through NaPoWriMo 2021 and today we are writing sijo, a traditional Korean poetic form. Like the…

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#2021 #Day 20 #Found poem #NaPoWriMo #River #Sijo #Swimming

[awyldepoetry]

Nonbinary Limerick

There once was a person called Jay At work on their very first day Filled out forms with splendor And when asked their gender Jay's eNBy, so Jay checked "N/A"

A. Wylde

April 11th, 2021 NaPoWriMo 10/20

#poems #poetry #napowrimo #napowrimo21 #national poetry writing month #nonbinary #enby

[blackinkmess]

NaPoWriMo 2021 - Day 20

It's hidden in the mundane moments, lingering in the little things. The feeling I long for the simplicity I desire. It's what I've come to live for in a world that has re-charted my course, sent me running wildly in a new direction. Certainty may be fleeting but it's not as hard to find as you may think. There's plenty of it. Everywhere. If you only know where to look.

#writer #writing #poet #poetry #poem #poeticstories #writingthestorm #napowrimo #napowrimo2021 #spilledink

[thebizza]

I posted 48,948 times in 2021

118 posts created (0%)

48830 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 413.8 posts.

I added 130 tags in 2021

#0 - 1 posts

#poetry - 42 posts

#medium - 36 posts

#napowrimo - 13 posts

#napowrimo2021 - 11 posts

#poetic series - 10 posts

#poems - 8 posts

#freewrite - 5 posts

#micropoetry - 2 posts

#essay - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 44 characters

#like tatsuki theres a man trying to kill you

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

NaPoWriMo Day 11 - Nwala’s Reply

NaPoWriMo Day 11 – Nwala’s Reply

Photo by Nicola Fioravanti on Unsplash Nwala’s Reply How do I move the way I do?Well, how can you not, father? Your melancholy puzzles me, cousinWhy do you not rejoice with us? I see, son; still stuck in the mundaneStill corporeal, linear, limited I gifted you with a name, and yetHere you sit, awaiting more morsels We tried showing it all at onceBut fearful, you averted your eyes Like…

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1 notes • Posted 2021-04-11 22:36:18 GMT

#4

2 notes • Posted 2021-06-03 01:20:33 GMT

#3

Interview with a Poet — Thinking About Poetry Series

Interview with a Poet — Thinking About Poetry Series

Interview with a Poet — Thinking About Poetry Series Image by Author (Pre-Pandemic-Quarantine weight-gain, of course.) Happy Friday, everyone! I was asked by Zay Pareltheon to participate in Scrittura’s “Thinking About Poetry” series, and my response was published here. Thank you for inviting me to participate, Zay. I enjoyed writing it far more than I imagined! Pete Beardsworth – Everything…

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2 notes • Posted 2021-01-29 18:07:40 GMT

#2

3 notes • Posted 2021-08-14 21:49:57 GMT

#1

I am the Michael Jordan of reblogging other people's shit!!!

4 notes • Posted 2021-11-04 22:54:44 GMT

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