April is here again & so thus Na/GloPoWriMo 2024. I’m moderately motivated by the month ahead though I always enjoy it, as things kick into gear. 

As late as mid-afternoon, I wasn’t sure what to focus on this year. My themes-based approach to Na/GloPoWriMo which has worked so well over previous seasons will continue — but I wasn’t sure which direction (or project) most appealed. Then it happened. The collection of poems I read today (I always try & read one volume a day during this hectic month) was bought for two reasons: because it had herons on the cover & because the poet is an acclaimed activist/political poet.

So that’s what my focus will be each day — an activist poem (a poem about one of the many issues I feel I should be doing something about, but aren’t). Hence, writing poetry — because we know all how that a few lines of well-crafted verse can change the world.

However, as with last year, I have a project in mind which may depend on the poems not being made public prior to their appearance. So I won’t be posting the entirety of each poem on my blog, but a [hopefully] tantalising snippet (many journals/etc refuse to accept poems even if they’ve just been on personal Facebook pages or blogs with only 100 subscribers). 

As a wonderful compensation for skimpy serious verse, I’ll be repeating my daily Poetic Factoid poem assignment from last year — which I thoroughly loved & from which I got some absolute cracking poems.

*****

bad timing

this crisis is so slow moving — and intimately place-based
a flower blooms early — an insect’s life cycle alters by weeks 
& suddenly birds have nothing — to feed their chicks

*****

Day 1 – TIL more about cool Japanese words

solitary maw

i.
i’ve long suspected the Japanese do words 
better than us — ever since learning electron 
means electricity child — today’s discovery is
Kuchi zamishi which describes the act of eating 
when you’re not really all that hungry 
but because your mouth is lonely
Koo-chi-sa-bi-shē is how it appears phonetically
— & honestly it could be on my family crest

ii.
it’s kind of “peckish” : but not
— less brazen than “stress eating”
— technically you’re not starving : 
but you keep checking the cupboard 
every 7 mins or so to see if something 
new & delicious has somehow
miraculously appeared in abstentia
— only my eyes want it : but 
i’ll eat it anyway : & so food 
silences mouth

iii.
sure we could cultivate awareness 
become mindful when we devour
overcome our unconscious consumption
through gratefully savouring each bite 
as Zen Buddhists do — but honestly
where’s 
    — the bleedin’ fun 
                 — in that