In Recognition of NaPoWriMo

A corollary to the monthly prompt

Recently, I posted The Bazaar of the Bizarre’s first monthly prompt, an exploration into the Duplex form invented by Jericho Brown, as well as in my poetry community on Facebook — Writes of Passage. Anyone is welcome to partake and “break verse” in this prompt. If you do, please tag me in it :)

Also, just because it is April, in recognition of National Poetry Writing Month although it’s really 24/7/365, I would like to pose a few more friendly challenges for all my fellow poets and writers. These are all actual challenges that I have either recently (or in the past) posed to myself that I’d like to extend to those of you who would like to indulge, if not now possibly in the future. Please don’t think of these as Prompts, but rather as Adventures or mere Poetic Explorations As Conscious Evolution.

Adventure #1:

Consider creating a Fibonacci poem (or Fib). Check out my Guest Writers Prompt in the Sky Collection for further details and background information about Fibonacci poems. Write on!

Adventure #2:

Also, consider writing a Ghazal. Until the past few weeks, the ghazal had been uncharted poetic territory for me. Basically right after reading Jessica Lee McMillan’s “Pictures of You”, which had allured my curiosity about ghazals, I began exploring the form and writing one of my own called “The Voiceprints of Rhythm”. Needless to say, in spite of a chaotic and tricky start, the pieces of the puzzle melded together very nicely, inspired by Hip Hop, which I consider to be the musical soundtrack of my coming of age. It wasn’t long thereafter entering adulthood that Poetry became my first love after falling out with numbers — and Jazz my mistress, under the influence of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and Charles Mingus. Write on!!

If you do become inspired to write a Fib or Ghazal, please tag me in it…I’d be very interested to read your creations.

Adventure #3:

Read more poetry, write more poetry. If you have never heard of them (or even if you have), check out some of the works by Kevin Young, Danez Smith, Etheridge Knight, Pablo Neruda, Charles Bukowski, Sonia Sanchez and Sylvia Plath. Also, if you get a chance, peruse some of the poetry by Terrance Hayes…if you do, you will get a very good hint at what I have planned for next month’s prompt in The Bazaar of the Bizarre.

Tagging some writers, though all are welcome to join in the fun :)

J.D. Harms, Zay Pareltheon, Harley King, ◦•●Christina M. Ward ●•◦, Imad, Victor Sarkin, Raffaella Ferretti, Franco Amati, Samantha Lazar, Frederick Andrew, Naomi Leilani Acosta, John Levin, A.j Thomas, Joanna Vang, Daniel A. Teo, Deepak Jayal, Aaron Quist, Gaston King, Chloe Hill, Ann Marie Steele, Anna Rozwadowska, Amanda Dalmas, Terry Barr, Noah Levy, Ivette Cruz, Cocoa Griot, FILZA CHAUDHRY, Dr. Fatima Imam, Viraji Ogodapola, Jessica Lee McMillan, Joseph Lieungh, Spyder, 𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘢 𝘊., Dennett, Andrea Juillerat-Olvera, Iva Hotko, Jesse M. Gonzalez, Barry Dawson IV, Lennie Varvarides, Justin Haag, Alina Sileanu, Georgia Lewitt, Warren Brown, ScienceDuuude, Roberto C. Salvador, Steve B Howard, Stephanie Blossoms, Paula Light, rowen maeve, Mike Scarpiello, Bhavyakirti, Matt Gleason, Henery X, Donna L Roberts, PhD (Psych Pstuff), Isaac, Saurabh, Arjan Tupan, Dana Sanford, Francine Fallara, Bahora Saitova, Normal Earthling, Isac Valdez, E. Scott Alighieri, Jenine Bsharah Baines, Lee Ameka, Rolli, Somsubhra Banerjee, The Somnambulist Society, Amy Marley, Patrick M. Ohana, Svetlana Smith

21st Century Griot Manifesto:

Propelled by pyrotechnic poetics, I think of myself as an imagineer of loose leaf musings, painting songbooks of the muses — that live beyond the lines and spaces in between — with my E.A.R.S. @ P.E.A.C.E., in which God speaks through and to me in Extemporaneous Amalgamations of Rhythm and Sound manifested in Poetic Exploration As Conscious Evolution. From metaphors to metaphysics, I am a purveyor of the poet tree of discoursing drums beating by any dreams necessary. With imagination as my 6th sense and soul as my quintessence, I am an alchemist of prosody and an avant guardian of inspiration everywhere. For me, writing is truly the balance of delicious agony and sweet ecstasy, always revealing itself as both the process and the product of catharsis.

2021 MDSHall, in association with the Writes of Passage, “forged on the wordwrights’ anvil,” and the Muse Echo Collective, Purveyors of the Poet Tree of Discoursing Drums beating by any dreams necessary.