Day Twelve

During the twelve days of Christmas, you collect rings, partridges, pears, leaping lords, and other bizarre items. The first twelve days of Na/GloPoWriMo don’t offer anything so complicated, but twelve new poems is nothing to sneeze at!

Our featured participant today is Laura McGinnis, who brings us a charming little joke (in rhyme) in response to Day Eleven’s “overheard” prompt.

Today’s featured resource is another podcast: A Mouthful of Air. In each episode of this relatively new series, a contemporary poet (generally from the U.K.) discusses one of their poems or, alternatively, host Mark McGuinness discusses a classic poem, like Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “The Windhover.”

And now for another (optional) prompt from our archives. Today, I challenge you to write a poem that addresses itself or some aspect of its self (i.e., “Dear Poem,” or “what are my quatrains up to?”; “Couplet, come with me . . .”) This might seem a little “meta” at first, or even kind of cheesy. But it can be a great way of interrogating (or at least, asking polite questions) of your own writing process and the motivations you have for writing, and the motivations you ascribe to your readers.

Happy writing!