So that's it. After thirty days' ceaseless formulating and writing poems, I've finally completed NaPoWriMo 2017. It's been a long challenge indeed, but looking back on what I've written this last month, I can safely say it was an unqualified success (unqualified due to my inexperience at this kind of challenge).
What strikes me looking through my NaPoWriMo catalogue is how the challenge forces you to think on your feet while writing and searching for ideas. While I had my usual tropes to fall back on - tiger poems, animal poems, poems about Wales - I've branched out into new territory with some of the other poems I've done. We've had poems about catfish, we've had poems about chimpanzees, we've had poems about worms, we've had poems about Bugatti, we've had sonnets, and we've had poems written in trochaic octameter. All in all NaPoWriMo has forced me to go outside my comfort zone a bit, which is a great stage of development for any writer.
Due to the fact that NaPoWriMo isn't so much about quality as about quantity, the constant demand to produce a poem a day for a month has been a bit tiring. Still, I think it has strengthened my writing abilities, as it has with many others whose work I've been seeing. For my first completed NaPoWriMo, it's been quite a good ride and I look forward to taking the challenge on again when it comes around next year.
In the meantime, I've got a few things approaching fast on this blog. There will be more poems as usual in the next week or two, another instalment of my newest feature, Frynwys Features, and more updates on the long-gestating Mametz Wood project.
To all of you who participated in NaPoWriMo 2017, well done and good luck for the future!
Showing posts with label catfish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label catfish. Show all posts
Monday, 1 May 2017
Friday, 28 April 2017
NaPoWriMo #28: Walking Catfish Wanderings
As the finish line of NaPoWriMo looms near, it's time to tackle another of their optional prompts. This time, the challenge is to use Skeltonic verse, pioneered by the fifteenth century English poet John Skelton. Put simply, it involves the use of short stanzas mixed with a vague rhyming scheme and two strong stresses per line. Here it goes.
Walking Catfish Wanderings
A catfish goes walking
and without talking
ponders life on the jungle floor
which it has not seen before.
Its pool is dry
and it must try
to search for new pastures
and squirm a bit faster
with spines on its gills,
with which it could climb hills
as it wills itself across
the land of twigs and moss
to find a small stream
with just a gleam
of light through the leaves
and finally it heaves
itself into the flow
where no other fish can go
and submerges below the surface,
having travelled the furthest
of any fish across land,
done without any hands,
a fish with instinct so strong
its journey did not go wrong.
Walking Catfish Wanderings
A catfish goes walking
and without talking
ponders life on the jungle floor
which it has not seen before.
Its pool is dry
and it must try
to search for new pastures
and squirm a bit faster
with spines on its gills,
with which it could climb hills
as it wills itself across
the land of twigs and moss
to find a small stream
with just a gleam
of light through the leaves
and finally it heaves
itself into the flow
where no other fish can go
and submerges below the surface,
having travelled the furthest
of any fish across land,
done without any hands,
a fish with instinct so strong
its journey did not go wrong.
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