NaPoWriMo 2017 Completed

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!

NaPoWriMo #15: Hunters Return

It's finally happened. I've reached the half-way point of NaPoWriMo, and to celebrate this milestone, I present a poem which was inspired by a story I've been following recently.

Hunters Return

A young chimpanzee
sits beneath a tree
in the Ugandan jungle,
his brother lounging
in the branches above.

They had considered
shadowing the hunting gang
when they left,
but given their mob mentality
the brothers decided better.

Suddenly a clamour strikes up,
the jungle canopy explodes
into a frenzy of shrieks.
The youngsters recognise
the work of their older kin.

The hunters return
with dismembered red colobus
to satiate their bloodlust.
Maybe a morsel or two
will be left for the brothers
if they ask nicely.