Day One – It Begins!

Welcome to Day One of NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo!

As in past years, we’ll feature a participant each day and supply an optional prompt. We’ve also traditionally supplied an “extra” – a link to a journal accepting submissions, information on a poet writing other than in English, etc. This year, we’ll be rounding out the daily posts with a link to an interview with a poet.

And now, without further ado, our featured participant for Day One is Gloria Gonsalves. Gloria is a longtime NaPoWriMo participant, and her early-bird haibun has a wonderfully dreamlike quality, and a lovely punctuating haiku.

Today’s interview is with Kay Ryan, whose spare, tightly-rhymed work makes each poem a small, witty, philosophical puzzle. You can find more background on Ryan’s life and work here, and read one of her poems here.

And finally, our (optional) prompt. In honor of today’s interviewee, I’d like to challenge you to write a Kay-Ryan-esque poem: short, tight lines, rhymes interwoven throughout, maybe an animal or two, and, if you can manage to stuff it in, a sharp little philosophical conclusion.

Happy writing!