Day Twenty on APRIL 20, 2024
Hello, everyone. Today we’re 2/3 of the way through Na/GloPoWriMo. We hope
that by the end of the day, you have 20 shiny poems under your belt and are ready
to write ten more.
Our featured participant for the day is The Four Swans, where you’ll find a mysterious
and somewhat discomfiting poem in response to Day 19’s haunt/hunt prompt.
Today’s resource is the Instagram account poetry is not a luxury, which serves up
new poems every day.
Our optional prompt for the day challenges you to write a poem that recounts a
historical event.
In writing your poem, you could draw on your memory, encyclopedias, history books,
or primary documents. If you’re interested in a little research, you might find
interesting this collection of letters written during the American Civil War, or
this collection of primary documents concerning South Sea voyages. Or perhaps
you might find something of interest in digging through Europeana, an online
clearinghouse of digitized materials from cultural institutions across Europe.
Happy writing!
History: Herstory
leaf after leaf to read
none of it unique or showy
yet wondrous in each way—
as girl, legs of a quail,
and tiny waist of an hourglass
with enough sand to serve
her curves and instant swerves
as she leaned toward her story
legs grew: size of tree trunks
her strong roots never flunked,
stretch marks: historical event
like doodles she’d soon frame
to the walls unashamed
the history of her story
© selma
poetry form: Tripadi
inspired by:
NPM Scavenger Hunt – Poems from Around the World!…
Today I was drawn to Bangladesh: Tripadi –
A form from the Bengali region
written in tercets (3-line stanzas).
There is no stated limit to the number of stanzas.
Each tercet has a strict syllable count of 8/8/10 and
a rhyme scheme of a/a/x where x is an unrhymed line.
THANKS, VAL
Wrote mine in the alternate version of the Tripadi that
has the same rules as above
except for the syllables per line:
lines one and two have six syllables
and line three has eight syllables.
Oh, a theme of the joy of living would be nice unless you want to do the reverse…
JOY: it’s a joy to be a woman, stretchmarks and all, and molding it (maybe) into Maureen’s
theme of Historical event drawn from memory > HERstory <
THANKS, MAUREEN
…Thanks for being here with me as I try to work on these first drafts this month.
Happy Writing, everyone.
- NPM Scavenger Hunt – Poems from Around the World - April 30, 2024
- Day 30: NaPoWriMo 2024–Mary Magdalene At The Doctor’s - April 30, 2024
- Day 29: NaPoWriMo 2024–Inside Love Incandescent - April 29, 2024
I love the wittiness of this poem Selma❤️
Thank you, Mich.
Thank you Raj
Very nice poem.
Thank you Raj
Most welcome, Selma
Oh so cleverly written my friend. The story of a woman’s life is indeed the history of a nation
The history of nations. Yes. Thanks Sadje.
You’re welcome my friend
This is wonderful, Selma. I love how you portray the changes in a woman’s body with no judgement. We should all be proud of who we are and the changes we go through.
Non judgement. Thanks for appreciating Heather. We are all beautiful. Xo
That we are. You are welcome.
You’re right, history has always been written by men from a male point of view. What’s taught in schools is usually a long list of kings, conquests, wars and the achievements of ‘great men’. There’s so much more to it than that!
There’s her-story too. Thanks Jane.
Our change from young to older, and I loved this poetry.
Thanks most dearly Diana. Xo
You’re most welcome.
Thank you for retelling (her)story which may never make it to the books but we all know it is compelling and worthy of records.
Worthy of records. Yes. Thanks, Anonymous. (Who are you?)
I think we can all identify. (K)
Yes, that is the hope: that all women can see the beauty they already possess. Thanks, K xo