#NPM | Playing with Poetry This Month

As we leave one month of challenges we enter another. I stated in my last post, the SOLSC challenge has ended and we have now entered April which is National Poetry Month and also considered by many to be National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). 

Last year during this time, I was still on my old blog with Word Press. I didn't post a poem every day, but I did make an effort to write one every day. I enjoy the lower stakes of that, as some poems just need to take seed in my notebook before I return to them. 

So, I don't have some grand project or commitment this month. My only goals are as follows: 

1. To check out the daily offerings at Ethical ELA's #verselove 

2. To make my debut with the Poetry Friday group (hosted this week by Mary Lee at A Year of Reading.) 

3. To publish one poem a week 

What I like about this, is that one can lead to two and two can lead to three. It keeps things simple and low pressure. What I don't want happening is a repeat of March where I focused more on my side project of slicing instead of my main writing project of finishing my novel. I don't need to focus on poetry... and yet two days in and I've already written two poems for #verselove and one just because.  

Whoops. 

I won't share both here, but I think it's fitting to kick off this year's poetry month by revisiting a poem from my old blog. This was in response to the first day of #verselove and the Shadow Poem prompt.

Process 

A shadow poem can be a lot of things, according to host Stacey Joy's explanation on Ethical ELA, but what I took it to mean was that using one poem, you look for it's shadow. I liked the idea of revisiting a poem I previously wrote and thinking about the shadows of that poem. 

When I think of shadows, I like to imagine the monsters and other creatures that lurk there. I remembered pretty clearly a poem I originally wrote last year about a small town in Louisiana that already had some creepy vibes. I’ve taken out some of the words — hidden them in the shadows — and what’s emerged is the monster I was alluding to all along. I like how much more creepier the poem became using this strategy — it was fun! 

Poem 

Original Poem: A Forgotten Town 

"Shadow of a Forgotten Town" by Erica Johnson 

Driving back 

the right time 

to see fields and fields 

I recognize 

but little else. 

 

Between 

patches of rural 

towns 

that break up the stretch 

and 

a place to rest. 

 

I don’t mind 

the quiet 

by myself 

just me 

and 

the 

ghost town: 

Transylvania. 

barely there 

all that seems

to be a colony of bats

nested 

and the king of 

TRANSYLVANIA 

 

past 

audacity of this declaration 

find signs of life 

in this ghost town. 

 

Between the tower 

and 

no signs of 

living 

just the remaining bat s 

and 

rotting welcomes 

all a town of undead 

hiding from the sun: 

Your town may be next.