Friday Writings #123: April

 

 

Dear Word Weavers (someone called me that recently and I loved it) –

It's April again! Who else remembers that song from the original 'Moulin Rouge' movie? Or we might think of April in Portugal, April in Paris, April Fools … not to mention April showers, and all those poems about Spring.

Though here DownUnder, we’re well into Autumn and our showers this year have often been heavy and prolonged.

For me and many others, including some of you, April is poetry month when we all write a poem every day, at least one, either privately or in participation with others doing likewise, and read even more poetry than usual. Every year I get to a point in April when I think I must have been crazy to do this. Yet every year I come back and do it again!

This year I decided to combine the NaPoWriMo (aka GloPoWriMo) prompts, which I’m doing for the first time, with the Poem A Day ones at Poetic Asides. It works quite well most of the time, as the NaPo prompts are very specific and the PAD ones quite broad.

Both sites specify that the prompts are optional, and that people are welcome to follow them ‘quietly at home’ without participating with the others who are doing them. I’m not participating at the Poetic Asides site this year – it was only after we were a little way into April that I made the decision to include those prompts – and unfortunately I’ve only had time to participate minimally at NaPoWriMo, but the posts there will remain accessible, so I can go back and read later and explore at leisure all the online poetic resources they alert us to as well.

So anyway, you guessed it, the optional prompt this week is April. You can allow that to inspire you in any way you like – or, if you are writing a poem a day this April, we’ll accept any one of them as fitting the prompt too – which is what I'm doing myself rather than try to write anything extra just now. 

And of course feel free to give us something entirely unrelated to April if you prefer.

Guidelines: Poetry or prose, old or new, one piece per person, 369 words maximum (excluding title). Please link, below, to that particular post in your blog.  If possible, also read other people’s posts and  leave an encouraging comment.

Next week, Magaly will invite us to write poetry or prose which includes 3 (or all) of the following words: consume, heartless, inflamed, peculiar, teeth.

Friday Writings #122: Comfort Reads

 

Hello, word artists and admirers! While I love discovering new books, there’s nothing like indulging in a re-read of a well-loved book. I have several I like to pick up, depending on what I’m doing, where I am or what mood I’m in. For instance, when vacationing in Maine, I may reach for We Have Always Lived in the Castle or The Shining. Lately I’ve had the itch to pick up Wee Free Men again, after recommending it to Darling Eldest. It’s too soon to know if it will also be one of his favorite re-reads, but he’s enjoying the ride so far.

So for this week’s optional prompt, I invite you to write poetry or prose about a book you’ve read more than once. I’m taking poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. Just be sure to keep your entries to 369 words or fewer, and one entry per person please.

Next week, Rosemary will ask you to write about April.