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.
Thanks everyone!
We’ll do it again next April?
I know some are setting up more of this kind of thing. And I’ll keep in touch with many of you. Gotta run back to work, but in the meantime don’t forget to breathe…!
http://novaheart.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/poem-43010-breathe/
Farewell and thanks to Dana and everyone else!
http://poetry.disorderedcosmos.com/2010/04/napowrimo-30-humans-humans/
Don’t forget to check out http://wewritepoems.wordpress.com
http://poetry-life-distilled.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-day-30.html
Here is my poem – a letting go poem, a good bye poem and a poem that wants a good holiday after a month of poetry writing. Good bye till we meet again at other sites, enjoyed my association with RWP – http://umaathreya.blogsome.com/2010/04/30/its-holiday-time/
I was going to try something cool and flashy, but, du’uh I can’t DO cool and flashy,
so I’ll just say bye
Guys and gals, I have had a great time reading your poems, discussing poetry, and writing with you all! I hope you all enjoy my final poem:
Goodbye.
kagerrr replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
This isn’t a goodbye…
it is a pause, a reflection,
a grace period.
You and me and the whole world—
we’ve gone and stopped for this moment.
And what will we say?
That it’s been therapeutic?
That it’ll help us in the long run?
I think I will put it as simply as this:
poetry has saved my life
and since I never stop writing my poems,
this isn’t a goodbye…
I’m later, but I am here!
Thank you to all at RWP who made the last two years of my writing life memorable. You challenged me in ways I can’t described.
Going out with in style…I can’t promise you futterwackin lessons, though.
Letters to Alice
http://www.robertlunday.net/2010/04/poem-30-distance.html
My birthday poem, and my 30th poem, Anti-Biotic can be read at musetomyeyes.blogspot.com
http://sky-lined.blogspot.com/2010/04/last-day-of-napowrimo-after-this-i-will.html Wew, a month is done already x3 . I stole Eol Eum’s idea.
Because I don’t want anyone to miss my thank you, I’m posting my poem here today, as well as at http://1965footprints.blogspot.com
I’ll Be Looking For Your Moniker
when I check my morning batch each day
between Home Warranty, Green Auto
and How To Keep From Going Gray.
A word in German, French or Thai,
a live bait message with a smirk,
red sox and red stilettos cry
grafitti shots of cranky work.
There’s one who markets bones and rags
and one who babbles on and on,
Greg’s jaunty words and thoughts of Cath
from down-under, a housewife’s laugh.
Blooming sweet-talk blowing words
shot red bubbles at the show,
a weasel drabbled where we gathered
for a scrambled lunch on Tuesdays-POW!
I listened in on Greek translations,
haunting, musing notes in Melrose,
with stowaways who follow beer
I read pasted dreams in cut-up-prose.
While sharing Napo writing month,
we prompted, posted, expressed, surrendered-
My gratitude to each of you
for the encouragement you tendered.
Thanks again.
Oh how I loved writing with all of you this month. I’ll be visiting your blogs in the days to come. Thank you for being. Poem on, lovely people!
http://robin-turner.blogspot.com/2010/04/through.html
http://ellenelizabethcernekkashk.blogspot.com
Farewell, all. I’m so sad that April is over. :_(
Thanks for so many great prompts!
http://healingforthehealthy.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-30-free-day-and-farewell.html
To anyone interested: the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, an AMAZING four-day poetry festival with well-known and less-known poets from around the world, is coming up this October in Newark, NJ. It’s the most inspiring event you can imagine, and the tix are now on sale. Check it out at http://www.dodgepoetry.org/
My last two poems, written in honor of the birds in my back yard –
http://theresebroderick.wordpress.com
Great to meet you all and to read your work. I look forward to connecting again. My final poem is a poem of farewell, of celebration, and of the timeless power of words.
“If I go west from here
surf into the sea’s blue mine
each wave a coalface…”
Read ‘If I go west from here’ at http://www.gregoconnell.com
A big round of applause to Read Write Poem and to everyone who completed NaPoWriMo!
I’m flat out today and tomorrow but will come back as soon as I can to read everyone’s final efforts.
I am the Hunter
Thanks for a stretching experience!
http://pamelavillars.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/april-30-10-untitled/
Oops, posted my thanks and goodbyes on the 29th by mistake! Thank you so much for these prompts and for the community with which to share work. So much fun. And I’m looking forward to the Big Tent site’s launch!
Here’s today’s final poem:
http://memali.posterous.com/3030-7
I’ve enjoyed reading a lot of works on here, and I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading mine. It should be real fun to do this again next year.
http://systematicweasel.blogspot.com/2010/04/phenomena-4-30-2010-poem-day-challenge.html
I absolutely loved this month! Thank you, ReadWritePoem.
http://web.me.com/susansonnen/Susan_Sonnens_musings/Blog/Entries/2010/4/30_NaPoWriMo%2C_Day_30.html
After a month of Napowrimo, brain on frazzled, he simply asked for 5 of my most favorite words!
Coherent enough to reply this is my piece for the last day.
untitled
I memorized you like music
RealBlackLoveSugarTenderness
http://marcieaf.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-day-30.html
http://kolokoli.blogspot.com/2010/04/evidence-they-leave-behind.html
Thank you, Read Write Poem!!!!!
HELLO ALL! I will miss this page so much. My life has changed in ways I’m certain I can’t imagine just from this little virtual community that was so well managed. I hope to see you all over on bigtentpoetry! I’ll be there! But for now here is my attempt at goodbye. Please know that you are always welcome to visit me on my blog! ONE LOVE!
http://lotuspapillon12.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-30-goodbye.html?zx=7bfbdd12a2102738
Wow—I can’t believe I wrote for thirty days! Thanks for hosting thos amazing site. My 30th poem: http://word-painting.blogspot.com/2010/04/provincetown.html
My last post for Read Write Poem: Black Like Jazz
See you all under the Big Tent!
Last one! Phewf. It’s been hard work, but I’ve enjoyed every poem. Thanks for the facilitating of it all!
http://just-somestuff.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-30-its-too-dark-for-cats.html
So bittersweet, this last day is. Perhaps it can end on a positive note? http://goo.gl/fb/s7ZVQ
This isn’t what I meant to write. It just kinda stuck out its foot and tripped what I had in mind… But it’s not all bad. http://jasonriedy.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/a-kinda-silly-terminal-entry-for-napowrimo-2010/
A *huge* thank you to everyone who’s worked on RWP, and to all the contributors. I’ve mostly lurked here, but RWP certainly inspired and encouraged me into picking up a pen (err, hitting keys) again. I can’t wait to see what the new projects will bring.
Jason Riedy replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
closing out this month
by thanking those who always
give their words to air
never expecting return
but feeling the sky open
( http://jasonriedy.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/and-the-hour-draws-near/ )
Thank you for the lovely opportunity and here’s a wish for the future!
http://mylineofwords.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-30-sonnet-for-future.html
Here’s mine, based on yesterday’s prompt: Darkening.
Can’t believe RWP is over. It was a good year and half for me. Thanks, all.
Thanks to everyone for the heartfelt goodbyes. Here’s my last post for the last RWP prompt: http://disorder1313.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/transliteration-of-catullus-xxxviii/
thank you rwp and poets it has been a wonderful journey equal ends
http://thebooklife.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/4-30/
Thanks for everything! I’ve loved this site and hate to see it end! Here’s my last poem for NaPoWriMo. #30
This freedom is killing me! So I wrote about that: Free, huh?
And since it’s free, I’ll link to what I wrote for another prompt, about the process of publishing twice daily for a month, from which I will now take: A Brief Pause. Maybe a long one.
Thanks to all the members of the ReadWritePoem community for the great ideas and prompts this month, and special thanks to Nathan Moore and Dana Guthrie Martin and the entire RWP team for curating them.
I look forward to switching back into reading mode in May and getting
caught up on all the work you all have written. Take care, everybody.
Read Write Poem administrators/visionaries, THANK YOU. It has been a pleasure! And I’m very sorry to see you go. I don’t make friends easily, and I hadn’t collected many yet. Though the ones I’ve found I will be keeping, and that means a lot to me. I’ll see you in cyber space and I wish you the best.
My last poem for this National Poetry Month 2010, for Read Write Poem: Old Poems
Since this prompt gives a little wiggle room, let me add something I’ve been doing on the side this month, more like ideas than a poem, but…
30 lines
someone once said parting is such sweet sorrow.
and it is.
here’s my lasr rwp poem — http://another2doors.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/i-am-not-an-arthropod/
I only discovered Read, Write, Poem this April and am so sad to find out that it’s not continuing! I felt like I settled in over the month and have really been enjoying getting to know this community.
I’m way behind on posting comments on people’s blogs, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading. Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for sharing your writing. I’ve really enjoyed seeing the sheer range of responses for each prompt. I hope to see people around somewhere or another.
And, of course, thanks to everyone who kept up the site, wrote prompts and in other ways made this month what it was.
Gracious, this is all a bit sad!
I guess it’s appropriate that for today, I ended up writing about missing an important person.
http://www.shicho.net/words/?p=1173
All the best, everyone….
Pink Gauze Wings
Angeliad of Surazeus
2010 04 30
http://open.salon.com/blog/surazeus/2010/04/30/pink_gauze_wings
http://stores.lulu.com/angeliad
when silver moon shines bright
behind swirling white clouds
little fairy with pink gauze wings
flutters around pink tulip house.
Darting high over Pixie Hollow
Ivy sees her friends by Swan Lake
so she soars on pink gauze wings
bringing a basket of fresh apples.
Holding hands with her best friends
Sedalia and Kailee and Jenisis
Ivy dances on pink gauze wings
and sings I love you all forever.
A little uninspired today, but it’s all I got. Kind of an uneventful finale . . . but perhaps there shall be an encore.
http://cosmicmermaid.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/sanity-recommended/
Thank you, readwritepoem! I will miss you terribly and hope to run into many of you on other poetry sites. RWP has been a source of inspiration for me–I will miss it terribly!
30 days! Congratulations, everyone!
http://freckledwriter.blogspot.com/2010/04/early-summer.html
Day 30. I wrote my poem to yesterday’s prompt.
http://paperdreams-jgc.blogspot.com/2010/04/day-30-until-next-year.html
Oh RWP, you will be missed.
I haven’t been on RWP long, but I will certainly miss the interaction with other poets once it’s gone.
I’m going to check out the Big Tent.
I missed a day here and there, but overall I enjoyed my first NaPoWriMo. I close it out with From the darkness calls, based on a birding experience I had this evening.
I had no idea I would feel such a sense of loss with this last posting – still needing a prompt, I used the one for today from Poetic Asides. So here is it my final poem for April – Letting Go.
http://lanijo.com/poetry/letting-go
It’s been a wonderful experience – thanks all of you for the prompts and the wonderful poems. Wow! I did 30 poems in 30 days! This last one was a social commentary poem.
http://www.cathymcguire.com/poetry.htm
http://eveningpoems.blogspot.com/
Sonnet
Who knew form was lurking around in my belly all month?
It’s been a pleasure. Thank you.
Thank you for allowing me to wax poetic on RWP’s NaPoWriMo. It’s been fun. I’d like to invite whomever would like, to check out The Undead Poets Society.
http://undeadpoets.wordpress.com
This is in response to the NaPoWriMo prompt for Day 23, “Unlikely Couples”…
http://timkeeton.wordpress.com
Tim Keeton
(Undead)Poet/Wizard/Teller-of-tales
here is #30…HIGHWAY TO SAN JOAQUIN
..WITH THANKS to DANA..Deb..Nathan..Christine and Charlotte….and ALL..
http://waynepitchko.blogspot.com
I will try to read everyone tomorrow
Thank you, thank you, to all involved. This has been an amazing journey for me.
~~~~~~~
Invisible Mother
Please don’t assume
because I am childless
I am an alien
of Planet Parenthood.
Don’t presume that a child
has never taken root
in my body,
branded my heart.
If my eyes could speak my story,
if there were a symbol, a badge,
it would be easier for both of us.
But this truth
like all truth
will work its way out in time
like a splinter.
back on the last day. And wouldn’t you know that my blog host would be down. Luckily, I have a backup. Be well all.
http://www.blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/napowrimo-29-front-page-news
Poem #30. “The Edge of the World (Poem Starting with a Line from Flannery O’Connor).”
Thank you to the staff of Read Write Poem. Thank you to all my fellow poets for your words, your time, your effort, your stamina, your tenacity. Thank you to everyone for their support. NaPoWriMo 2010 has been a blast!
Posted at: http://troysworktable.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-30.html
Thanatopsis in Times Square
To escape the crowds, we walk in the street
and press our feet into every crack,
hoping the earth will open enough
to let us slip into merciful darkness.
Countless light bulbs preen ecstatically
like a promise of hereafter, watch faces
stealing time but giving back the sun
or just another Coca-Cola ad. Life stops
just long enough for us to gaze up
into the glare, consider our year
so filled with death. Tired, we are ashes
but not yet dust, paper-thin embers
floating through the throng
as if we could become the glow
suffusing the air. Instead, we turn away
because all this light is overwhelming
after weeks spent contemplating
what the ground must look like
from underneath. Dirt has a way
of getting into everything – even these signs
smudging their way toward Central Park,
a blurry path to groves of trees
and tall fences behind which
animals huddle close and listen
to everyone in their cross-trainers
running from something.
OK It’s almost midnight. Wayne is leading the conga line out the door followed by Novahart.
If anyone needs a bed for the night POW at
Rallentanda’s is offering basic accomodation . I have knitted a few extra tents myself.
GOODBYE AND GOOD LUCK POSSUMS!
Writer’s Island is now open and the first prompt is up and ready…
I’m on the west coast, so I took my time with my last piece. Thank you again, RWP staff, for all your hard work on this site the last few years.
http://mayaganesan.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-30.html
Thank you everyone. It has been a pleasure.
some snippets on letting go
http://crankymango.blogspot.com/2010/05/letting-go.html
Read Write Poem is & was an amazing place.
Huge thank yous to Dana & Andre for creating it, Nathan for fueling it, and Carolee & Jill for being here from before the beginning.
And there are others who have contributed much since 2007- take a look at the Archives and you’ll see:
Andre Tan
Blythe
Carolee Sherwood
Christine Swint
Dana Guthrie Martin
Dave Jarecki
David Moolten
Deb Scott
January O’Neil
Jessica Fox-Wilson
Jill Crammond Wickham
Juliet Wilson
Kristen McHenry
Nathan Moore
Ren Powell
Robert Peake
Sage Cohen
Sarah J. Sloat
Tom Adam
(Of course that doesn’t account for the endless hours people like Dana, Andre and Nathan put into the site. You would faint if you knew that number. They would, too.)
But it is the poets who visit & play & who make poetry a part of their lives — YOU — who are also to be thanked.
Yay poets, yay poetry!
Write & be well.
Love,
Deb Scott
I added some final thoughts in a sticky post at the top of the site, and I also wanted to comment here and thank everyone for being part of Read Write Poem. Thank you all. Many blessings, many good wishes. Poem on.