Day Twenty-Four

Happy final Sunday of NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo, everyone!

Today, our featured participant is Kirsten Luckins, whose sonnet for Day 23 is full of questions.

Our poet in translation for today is Estonia’s Hasso Krull, whose poetry is very much influenced by Greek and other myths. (That seems to be a theme with a number of our poets in translation! I guess some topics are evergreen when it comes to poetry). Twelve of Krull’s poems, translated into English, can be found at the link above.

And last but not least, our prompt (optional, as always). Today I challenge you to write a “mix-and-match” poem in which you mingle fancy vocabulary with distinctly un-fancy words. First, spend five minutes writing a list of overly poetic words – words that you think just sound too high-flown to really be used by anyone in everyday speech. Examples might be vesper, heliotrope, or excelsior. Now spend five minutes writing words that you might use or hear every day, but which seem too boring or quotidian to be in a poem. Examples might be garbage disposal, doggy bag, bathroom. Now mix and match examples from both of your lists into a single poem. Hopefully you’ll end up with a poem that makes the everyday seem poetic, and which keeps your poetic language grounded. Happy writing!