by the Read Write Poem Staff
Today is the last day of (Inter)National Poetry Month and the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge. The prompt today is a free day — you are free to use any prompt you have not yet written to from those provided this month, or you can write, and share, whatever you like today.
Congratulations to everyone who took part in the challenge! For those of you who wrote a poem every day this month, tomorrow we will post instructions for submitting work for the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge anthology.
Remember that the anthology is the culmination of the work done here at Read Write Poem. It will be posted on this site and on issuu.com toward the end of May. Other than the anthology, as of May 1, the Read Write Poem site will no longer be live. The site’s main content will remain up as an archive, while all social elements (i.e., profiles, wire posts, private messages, groups, forum posts) will be removed May 1. Please make sure you have retrieved any information you want to save.
We also want to announce that Deb Scott — who served on Read Write Poem’s administrative team — and Carolee Sherwood and Jill Crammond Wickham — who were part of the site’s creative team — have started a new poetry community. The three will share poetry prompts and other poetry-related content at Big Tent Poetry. Their writing lineup is comprised of many fine poets, including several contributors to Read Write Poem. We hope you will check that site out and see what’s going on under the big tent.
Thank you all for taking part in Read Write Poem, and for taking the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge this year. Read Write Poem was intended to help poets share work with one another and learn more about poetry. We hope you will continue on that path. Or, in short, we hope you will all poem on — wherever poetry takes you.
Reminders for everyone
Read the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge Kickoff post for details on how the challenge works — and how you can engage with Read Write Poem this month, no matter what your personal writing challenge is for the month of April.
Please read this page to find out how Read Write Poem’s prompt posts work. Remember that work linked from any post this month is shared in precisely that spirit: sharing, as opposed to critiquing. If you haven’t done so already, please read all the pages under About in the navigation bar.
So, the internet is down, so I haven’t been able to link to my poems for the final three days of NaPoWriMo (Yes, it’s Friday for me today). So, Wednesday was Wrenched, Thursday was Golem, and Friday is Lilac. I hope you enjoy them all. Congratulations on finishing NaPoWriMo!
Damian replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 12:22 am
I do want to submit to the anthology, but I’m away for a few days – please don’t set a deadline that’s too close, guys!
I think plenty of people will agree that RWP has made a pretty significant impact on the world of online poetry sharing, so I think a thank-you is in order for keeping the site up and running with so many features and members and such for these few years.
The free-day prompt is neat…will be back later to post – and link to – my poem.
juliejordanscott replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Yes, Yes, Yes on the thank you for the significant impact.
I would like to thank Dana,Nathan and everyone involved in running RWP. Apart from the interesting, varied and informative content, what made it for me were the regular contributors,a group of talented bright sparks and nice people as well. I will miss you and hope you stop in at the poet’s refugee camp from time to time POW POW POW!
For free day and farewell – One minute before burn-out
A great big thank you for the people who run RWP and made napowrimo possible!
I’ve only been here a month, but I feel like I’m losing my best friend. My last post for the month is
http://redshoepoet.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-challege-30.html
Yes, a BIG THANK YOU to everyone responsible for running RWP and to all the supportive friends I’ve made. My poetry certainly needed the impetus that RWP provided.
So, a free day? Gee, my mind’s gone blank!
I also want to thank everyone who ran RWP. I have meet some very talented and certainly interesting people here. This is a sad day indeed. Rall I will be stopping by to see you and some of the other folks.
Thank you all – at RWP, and everyone who took the time to read, and/or comment on my contributions – for an uforgettable experience.
Until next time…
Meanwhile – so you know where I’m coming from, check out: PLANET ISAN
“Haiku for Today”
http://www.redbubble.com/people/nebsy/writing/5095612-napowrimo-20
lorikmacdonald replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 5:43 am
Love these!
Tried out a concrete poem for the end: Arbor Day
Guys, thank you all for what has been a marvelous nine months of my poetic life. It seems like such a long time ago, but really the fact that it was a relatively short span of time that had such a huge impact is really telling about the significance of this community. A hundred thousand thanks to all who helped make it possible, from the movers and shakers to the most idle passing groupie. This place will be sorely missed, but will live in our memories, and bring forth new inventions of its own.
See y’all round the Internet here and there… why don’t you drop by sometime and say hey.
Did something special for this one, since I’m wide-awake now to do it.
I took a single line from every other poem I wrote this month, and put them all together, in order, plus one more extra line to form this final 30-line poem; http://wintermintfruit.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-2010.html
Thanks for all the fun this month~~!
And Suddenly
http://nothinghypothetical.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/and-suddenly/
Kudos to everyone who’s worked on RWP. It’s been terrific.
Especially thanks to Dana: you started something really important here. This is the Big Bang of productive poetry communities on the web: galaxies of them are going to form in all directions, out of the impetus you gave to this one.
Yes, thank you, readwritepoem! I’m so glad you’re here! You’re awesome!!!
Whoo hoo DAY 30 PARTY TIME!
‘GET IT ON’
http://rallentanda.blogspot.com
Thank you, Thank you RWP!! Read Write Poem sparked something in me that I didn’t know was there. It also got me through a tough month of bad health and a surgery that may or may not have finally fixed something that has drastically altered my life for the past 18 months. RWP and Napowrimo did allow me out of the cage that my body has become in ways that fiction hasn’t, so while I missed the anthology sign up and have a few more days of posting poems to my blog correctly and moving a couple off the wire, I deeply deeply thank the people who keep this site running and those who commented on my work, because you have given me a place to inscribe hope which I desperately needed. Thank you Right Wing Porn.
And… my final. (Final this month but not final. I’m hooked on studying and writing poetry now) http://menremainboys.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/excess-poetry/
Feeling sad so just a song to express, for Dana and the whole RWP gang…thank you thank you thank you
Mad World
I did it! All 30 days, all 30 poems! I had fun. I especially liked the cleave poetry, so here is my final thank you to the organizers and all those who cheered me on.
It’s the final day of so many things
of a wonderful month I wrote poems
I explored depths beyond measure
I have had fun as I haven’t done before
Thank you!
vivienne blake replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 5:17 am
I too like these cleave poems, and yours is a cracker! They need more work than I thought.
Jaelle replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Thay do, don’t they? Glad you like it!
rallentanda replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 5:53 am
You are very good at these cleave poems
Jaelle replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Thank you
Linda replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 6:39 am
I think this is a fitting tribute to the RWP people. Well done.
Jaelle replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Thank you! It was an amazing month for me. I rarely ever did poems before.
30/30 = mission accomplished!
http://scriptophobe.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-30-free-day.html
Thank you RWP!
I would like to thank you Dana for your ongoing contribution to poetry on the internet. I have been inspired by the writing prompts and overall creative energies you have facilitated for better than 5 years, since having first discovered Poetry Thursday, your predecessor to RWP. I wish you all the best in the future Dana.
And a fond thank you and gracious farewell to RWP, and all of you great folks responsible for keeping such a fine site available for the past few years.
It has been a pleasure for me, and I am certain I will remain in creative touch with many in this wonderful community.
So here is my final link post on RWP: The Poets… ;(
rob kistner replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
The first new prompt is now logged at Writer’s Island and will be visible at midnight EDT tonight (Friday) for the re-opening of the Island tomorrow, Saturday May 1st. New prompts will appear every week now Friday at midnight (Saturday 12:01 AM). Hope to see you on the beach… You will also find direct links to all the key writing/poetry prompt sites permanently posted on the island, as we intend to keep all us Islanders connected and writing…
I had diarrhea of the brain a couple of years ago and kept building this monstrosity of a poem. It’s kind of like when Gene Wilder exclaims in Young Frankenstein: “It’s Alive!!!” The poem kept growing and building. I think the movie version of this poem is probably shorter. If you dare read the entirety of this poem, you are a much braver soul then most. Thanks to all of my new friends who made NaPoWriMo a very enjoyable experience! Best wishes to all of you and perhaps we’ll meet again along creative digital streams, but now we write off into the digital sunset.
Until then, I give you…
“What is Fun?”
http://babblingoninbabylon.com/blog
I too have enjoyed this tremendously. Not sure if I interpreted the rules but I was late joining and due to illness late in posting some of the poems hence don’t think I qualify for the anthology. However it has been a blast and I would like to thank all who helped organise this and the many participants for their work and their entries and the many people who encouraged me with their comments. Here is my final submission.
http://ingeborgsblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-30-free-day.html
Here’s my final installment:
http://melrosemusings.blogspot.com/2010/04/withdrawal-symptoms-napowrimo-day-30.html
vivienne blake replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 8:19 am
I don’t know why, but my comment has been rejected again.
I’ve not been there, or done that, and I look awful in the T-shirt, but from the odd glimpse of that dreadful TV programme “Coach Tour” I reckon you’ve hit it spot on.
Derrick I have greatly appreciated your poetry, all your help and apposite comments during this wonderful April, and hope we meet again somewhere.
My sign-in letters (which didn’t work) were as appropriate as Linda’s: Ophymn. I’ve a long list of these in the back of my notebook and plan to invent a new language with them – or maybe just use them in a poem!
My poem is here:
http://ragbone.wordpress.com
Thanks for the wonderful prompt and great site..
My poem for today
poemsotherwise.blogspot.com
Linda replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 7:06 am
Jeeves, I wanted to leave a comment on your blog but couldn’t. I really like your poem for today.
http://thelaughinghousewife.wordpress.com
vivienne blake replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 8:28 am
Very sad. I hope it’s not true!
thank you everyone
april alumni
And suddenly it is over.
We are free of the familiar pattern;
challenge, frustration, relief.
The gentle banter of fellow travellers
will atrophy into archival trails.
I feel an ambivalent mix of satisfaction
and the hollow finality of an
emptying airport departure lounge.
We are free and individual again
like balloons adift.
Watching the familiar landmarks
shift and fall away to leave us
floating at the edge of the void.
Perhaps stalled, perhaps already
combining to form structures
through which to chase meaning.
Some wider design to give
a sense of place and purpose
to these colourful bubbles of language.
derrick replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 7:40 am
I enjoyed this. Particularly “The gentle banter of fellow travellers/will atrophy into archival trails”; sad thought but that’s life!
vivienne blake replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 8:30 am
An emotional evocation of how I feel just now.
Only started hanging out here at christmas time, but have certainly enjoyed the run. Thanks to all the RWPeople; it’s been great for me.
Facing the music at Scrambled, Not Fried
This has been a great month and I’m sorry it’s over and I’m sorry RWP is no more. My poem – for TODAY’s prompt, yeah! – is at http://thelaughinghousewife.wordpress.com
I am going to take a hot bath to clear my sinuses and then I’m going to try and comment on every single poem posted so far today.
Napowrimo, last day: farewell and thankyou, I hope we meet again.
My poem is here: http://vivinfrance.wordpress.com
For free poem day I did a poem inspired by Elizabeth Smart
At Grand Central Station
A hundred men and woman pulled luggage along
and my cries with them, loose as laces unravelled
by ever step that passed. I sat on the ground
and wept, the level of leather, shoes looked me in the eye.
Only them, every emotion, all my days had built to this,
to watch trains almost missed, to see them underwater
from the ground. One or two people dropped tissues,
not getting too close to the bundle of woman.
They imagined there’d been a death, hoped so,
nothing else would be enough to explain, excuse.
A man threw his hankercheif down, his initial
his wife or mother embroidered in blue on the corner,
I could not use. I was not a beggar setting out the bowl
of my gut for scraps of sympathy. The lights of the station
were halo’s above me, an oval frame for the face
of something weeping on the ground.
I wished I was not a woman, that the source
of all I felt now wrenched out could not be allocated
to being a symptom of my sex. I resented each tear
I’d ever shed up till now because till now I never knew
what they meant. Children with runny noses
caught the attention of old women, men departing
for the service with girls round their necks
a blur on platforms, I envied their easy tears,
the clarity to all of what they were weeping for.
I longed for their cut and dry uniforms.
Steam went up, departure after departure, trains left
And I caught none, only my breath went with them.
The station master blew his whistle, I knew it was a signal
for me to stop. Another tissue landed on my head,
this time the strangers looked down, perhaps caught
by a shapely leg extended from my coat,
or felt the distant conscience calling of another woman
he had left somewhere at another station, baggage unclaimed.
The strangers looked down at me, but he did not see my face
for there was none left, only salt, this raw wound
of my mouth open with the outpouring of emotion
that I could not name. He stood over but I couldn’t
see him, it was as if every closed room in my house
has opened, that every second of my life had built
just towards this moment, it was a birth cry
and several deaths. You were not here to see it,
every second your kisses hammered home to build
this moment, an overcoat in the vague shape of a woman
who sat on the cement at grand central station and wept.
Ron. Lavalette replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 5:07 am
Oh my, how I love that book. And your poem’s very solid, too. Well doen.
rallentanda replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 5:40 am
I read Elizabeth Smart a long time ago. I am so impressed with your powerful writing.It left me speechless and wilted.Such talent!
Sable replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Powerful and lovely!
Huzzah!
Thanks to RWP for providing this space. Thanks to all of you for stopping by my site and leaving your wonderful comments. I post poetry there even when it’s not April, so keep coming by, OK?
Today’s offering is called “Red is…”
http://jasoncrane.org/2010/04/30/poem-red-is/
And since this is the last one of these, I’ll just shamelessly plug my new book again:
http://jasoncrane.org/store
Huzzah!
Jason
I haven’t been a part of this community for very long, but I have really grown attached to you all. Thank you for your hard work and for your commitment to writing and poetry. RWP will be missed.
Here’s my offering for the day “Hope Is”
http://poiesis3.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-finale-hope-is.html
I’m glad I don’t need the free day prompt, because after a month I am all out of ideas. For Day 30 I used the Day 29 newspaper prompt, since we are a day ahead here – not much more than an hour till midnight April 30.
My post is here.
Thanks to the team for putting all these prompts together,they took me in some surprising directions and I definitely couldn’t have come up with a poem a day without them.
http://mothersparrow.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/flattered/
april alumni
And suddenly it is over.
We are free of the familiar pattern;
challenge, frustration, relief.
The gentle banter of fellow travellers
will atrophy into archival trails.
I feel an ambivalent mix of satisfaction
and the hollow finality of an
emptying airport departure lounge.
We are free and individual again
like balloons adift.
Watching the familiar landmarks
shift and fall away to leave us
floating at the edge of the void.
Perhaps stalled, perhaps already
combining to form structures
through which to chase meaning.
Some wider design to give
a sense of place and purpose
to these colourful bubbles of language
http://crankymango.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-alumni.html
Aftermath.
It’s been a great ride, friends. See you soon.
Hi there,
I would like to thank Dana, Nathan and everyone involved in running RWP, this was my first NaPoWriMo and it has been thrilling and exciting. I’ve learned a lot and it pushed me to keeping on improving the way I express.
I also would like to thank to the poets who everyday post their poems; you’ve been a great inspiration for me (even if I haven’t commented as much as I’d like but I’ve read you all). Thanks for encouraging me. I do appreciate it.
For today, I’ve tried to explain what this NaPoWriMo has meant to me.
http://stiletto.crisopeya.eu/2010/04/30/napowrimo-30-free-day-and-farewell/
Take care,
S.
Parting is such sweet sorrow.
time for farewell
If you still wanna play (and who doesn’t) there’re sites and there’re sites. I know I’m heading next Thursday to We Write Poems
My last poem here is a bit depressing. See you guys around. It has been fun.
http://flaubert-poetrywithme.blogspot.com/2010/04/saying-goodbye-napowrimo-30.html
My farewell poem:
http://poemblaze.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/napowrimo-30/
Matt Quinn replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 8:40 am
Have only been here since early February, but will definitely miss the crew here.
We did it!
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978207205
vivienne blake replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 9:23 am
My reply slipped a bit! see below Sunshine’s comment.
hosking replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
vivienne, thanks. I’ve written quite a few acrostics well before this challenge. I like them because rhyming isn’t necessary. But I was happy with a few of the rhyming poems I wrote this month. I went from thinking I could never write a limerick to having 4 limericks written now.
I’d like to dedicate my, We Did It, acrostic to everyone who stuck out the entire month. I have more than 30 poems written this month. It was fun everyone.
A big thank-you to the whole RWP family for the prompts and the community. You’ll be missed. Here’s my final prompt-free poem:
If Arizona’s Iced Tea, I’ll Drink Coffee
Thank you all for a memorable month. Cheers, viedersehn, g’day, au revoir.
Please enjoy
In My Last Month (with apologies to the originals, they’re used to imitation/flattery)
http://jdmackenzie.blogspot.com/2010/04/in-my-last-month.html
A final farewell, because we are at: The End
Thank you, RWP, for giving a young girl a chance to gatecrash a grown-up’s dinner party.
These acrostics have really taken off!
Hi, all. Thanks for a great month of writing prompts, and poets, thanks for letting me peek in on your lives. As for the stellar RWP folks, what you’ve created is a very special community, and that is such a work of the heart. Thanks for that.
Good luck to everyone on their future writing endeavors!
http://avniously.blogspot.com/2010/04/advice.html
Number 30! http://rhiannonproblematising.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/napowrimo-30-over-problematising/
I’m going to miss this place, especially the weekly prompts.
I want to thank everyone….I had only been here for a couple months, and this was my favorite poetry commuinity
Thanks for the prompts, the community.
Today’s cornucopia of poems are on Facebook or here: http://dash30dash.ning.com/profiles/blogs/napowrimo-day-30-poems-prompts
Keep writing, sharing.
Thanks, RWP, for this place where we gathered to share our thoughts, dreams, fears, desires, insecurities, and so much more. I haven’t been here long, but I’ll miss you. Thanks also to everyone for enriching my life with your poems. It’s been an unforgettable experience! I didn’t think I could write a new poem each day, but I did it!!! Even though most were far from stellar, this has been rewarding and a real period of real personal growth. Cheers!
I’ve offered up 2 short poems today at
http://rrosenchang.blogspot.com
It’s been a lot of fun!
Final poem – The Cleansing Ritual
http://mmw113.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowromo-30.html
vivienne blake replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 11:01 am
My Wordpress ID didn’t work.
Congratulations. What a great final line, specially on this last day.
So excited to have made it to Day 30!(: It has been wonderful to be part of this community, however briefly. Thanks to RWP for making this April a month to remember! Hope this community continues somewhere and we all meet again next year…
A final few poems at http://alienfireworks.blogspot.com/2010/04/last-day-of-april-poems-and-thank-you.html
It’s been a pleasure reading everyone’s poetry all month! I hope to see you all again in the blogosphere.
http://tinacelio.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/boyden-spirit-army/
it’s wonderful to hear how much this community has meant to people. really wonderful.
and thank you, RWP, for the shout out about Big Tent Poetry!
here’s my final piece for the month. it feels strange knowing it’s the last one for the site!
http://caroleesherwood.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/napowrimo-30/
I’ve been spoiled by these prompts. It’s going to be hard to get back in the habit of finding my own inspiration, but it worked out okay for me today.
Jellyfish
“Why can’t we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn’t work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos.” ~Charles M. Schulz
Last day! Endings always make me sad. My thanks to the fantastic Read Write Poem Staff. I fell into this by accident and have enjoyed meeting the many talented and creative writers who took part in this amazing experience with me. I hope to find a way to stay connected to the artistic spirit I found here on these internet pages.
http://herwordsbloomed.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-30-free-day-and-farewell.html
here is mine: http://teapartiesonneptune.wordpress.com/?p=252
actually here it is: http://teapartiesonneptune.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/5-am/
Thanks for the prompt, I chose to do one I missed last week. I picked the phrase – The Full Monty, Here goes: Butcher Hatmaker
I will miss this wonderful community greatly. Thanks for all of the inspiration and forced growth.
Here is my “free” poem today:
http://coosacreek.org/amputated/2010/04/30/loss-found-in-a-stone-for-my-father/
I think I forgot to link the poem properly. Sorry– here it is again:
Loss Found in a Stone
Woot! We made it! Congrats all! This has been great
Farewell, Goodbye
http://yearofthebooks.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/poem-a-day-day-30/
For the record, goodbyes suck and farewells are even worse…
http://juliejordanscott.typepad.com/jjspoetry/2010/04/free-within-a-memoir-cento-of-napowrimo-2010.html
finally it’s all over!
thanks to everyone who visited and apologies to all of those whose poems i would’ve liked to have left a comment on but just didn;t have the time. well done to everyone!
and a big thank you to rwp with whom i’ve enjoyed napowrimo this last couple of years. thanks for all the effort. you’ll be missed
Here is my poem “I”ll Be Looking For Your Moniker” at http://1965footprints.blogspot.com There’s something for everyone here, I hope—
Thank you everyone. Don’t be strangers!
God, I hope I get it!
I hope I get it!
God I hope I did it!
I hope I did it!
(fulfilled all the requirements for NaPoWriMo 2010, that is…)
I will be posting my final verse here on the nonce…
Tim Keeton
(Undead)Poet/Wizard/Teller-of-tales
http://timkeeton.wordpress.com
http://undeadpoets.wordpress.com
http://katharinewhitcomb.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-30-this-is-your-brain-on.html
Thank you RWP! I enjoyed this so much! It was great meeting all of you other poets and sharing work. Writing a poem every day was challenging but so revelatory! I will miss it!
I’ve really enjoyed this challenge. So glad Veronica pointed it out to me.
http://sheiladeethdrabbles.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-napowrimo-30.html
Enormous thanks to Dana for this elegant gift. And Nathan, Deb, Carolee, Jill, sincerely all, and the many who contributed here, made RWP a part of who we are.
NaPoWriMo #30 saying goodbye
I truly hate to say goodbye. This has been the best poetry community I’ve ever been a part of, and I thank all of you, staff and participants, who made it possible for us all. My poem is the only one I could write today -
For my final poetic offering, it was too much fun not to try to do something with all the clever prompt titles…
“Free Day (and Farewell)”
http://caraholman.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/2010-napowrimo-30/
oops – http://www.synecdochicstuff.blogspot.com/
I tried writing a Haibun. Hope this makes sense.
Hummingbird flowers
It looks a bit like a weed, that fast creeping vine with the tiny green
Leaflets that skitters along the ground, looking for some
Thing that will raise it higher, that it can crawl to the top
Of and wave with the wind and, oh yes! Open its beautiful
Coral red blossoms that are shaped like trumpets and attract
Those whirring wings and tiny body of the hummingbird,
The star of mid-summer – the creature that seems to defy
The law of gravity as it hovers next to a blossom, sipping
Its nectar while its wings flutter so rapidly that they become
Invisible as the tiny bird sips his supper in the middle of thin air.
Haiku
Acrobatic star
Of the summer garden
Trumpets sound your name
I will really miss this site, I’ve learned about using computers from the
Mistakes I’ve made., and poetry from all the good examples of the art
. Hope to run into all of you over the Internet.
Thanks to RWP for this vibrant amazing community!
Many fine places to go from here after today and keep the writing on, including Big Tent Poetry, Writer’s Island, and we hope you’ll enjoy as well We Write Poems
Thursday, May 6th will be the first prompt!