Day Nineteen

Hello, everyone, and welcome back for the nineteenth day of NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo!

Today’s featured participant is angieinspired, where the “sound of home” poem for Day 18 evokes the speech of Kansas.

Our featured poet in translation today is South Africa’s Isabella Motadinyane. Writing in Sotho, English, and other languages, Motadinyane was a member of the poetry performance group the Botsotho Jesters. Five of her poems can be found at the link above, and two more can be found here.

And now for our prompt (optional, as always)! Many years ago, “didactic” poetry was very common – in other words, poetry that explicitly sought to instruct the reader in some kind of skill or knowledge, whether moral, philosophical, or practical. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write the latter kind of “how to” poem – a didactic poem that focuses on a practical skill. Hopefully, you’ll be able to weave the concrete details of the action into a compelling verse. Also, your “practical” skill could be somewhat mythological, imaginary, or funny, like “How to Capture a Mermaid” or “How to Get Your Teenager to Take Out the Garbage When He Is Supposed To.” Happy writing!