Day Six

Hello, everyone! Welcome back for Day Six of Na/GloPoWriMo.

Our featured participant for the day is woodyandjohnny, where the container-based prompt for Day 5 gave rise to a poem full of strange language and tonal shifts . . . which might not be surprising, given that it was based on a poem by the Serbian avant-garde poet Vasko Popa!

Today’s featured reading is pre-recorded, so that you can enjoy it whenever your schedule allows. It features the poet Nikki Giovanni reading at Emory University back in February of 2020.

Finally, here’s our daily (optional) prompt. Our prompt yesterday asked you to take inspiration from another poem, and today’s continues in the same vein. This prompt, which comes from Holly Lyn Walrath, is pretty simple. As she explains it here:

Go to a book you love. Find a short line that strikes you. Make that line the title of your poem. Write a poem inspired by the line. Then, after you’ve finished, change the title completely.

I encourage you to read Walrath’s full post, which has some other ideas for generating new poems based on pre-existing text.

Happy writing!