What I Learned From a 30 Day Poetry Challenge

That I’ve learned nothing at all apparently

Old habits die hard, if they die at all.

I took part in a 30-day poetry challenge shortly after signing up for Medium. I thought it would be a good idea to force myself to write every day for 30 days. Lock in the habit. I was successful at that. I wrote every day for 30 days, and have continued writing every day.

As I was thinking about putting together my what did I learn reflection to post I kept coming back to an event early in my writing journey. I took a creative writing class some hundred years ago as a sophomore/junior undeclared major of some sort. I was a non-traditional student by accident, having started college before I was out of high school-which in 1974 was not a thing.

We had to submit a piece of writing each week for this course. That was nearly an impossible task for a theatre/psychology major. I requested extensions on deadlines week after week. The professor called me into his office.

“Why are you having such a hard time getting your work turned in on time?” he asked.

“It’s just not ready- I have drafts but they aren’t up to snuff,” I replied. “And yes, I know that is a cliche that needs to be re-written.”

Then came the first piece of “best advice” I’ve ever received from a professor. “You let me be the judge. That is my job. You just turn it in on time- whatever it is you have.”

“But,” I started to explain.

“No butts allowed… just turn it in,” he interrupted, then went back to the stack of papers he was grading.

Of course, I left muttering; you want to read crap then fine-crap it is. Ten minutes before class I would get a coffee, with cream and sugar, then write whatever came to mind for five minutes. I would hand-copy it to a clean copy — for those born post-1986 — we had to deal with typewriters, whiteout, carbon copy paper, or ditto sheets. There were no word processors, or uploading files, or file share for us.

The value of that writing transfer was it slowed my mind. It became a mindful sort of practice that allowed me to see errors, fix incoherent rhyming structures, etc. I would end the ritual session with a refill on the coffee and head to class.

Arriving just barely in time, I put my pages in the share-piles on the table. Once everyone was present, we picked up a pile to read. We made comments, editing suggestions. We would receive our pieces back, we would have 5 minutes to make the changes we agreed with, formulate a rationale for not making changes, etc. Then we would finish by reading our own piece out loud and giving a quick summary and thank you for the edits and commentary. Students could then comment on your work and you had to sit in silence.

On day one of the “You want crap, I’ll give you crap challenge” I was terrified. I was going to be lashed by angry red pens flailing vitriol at me for disrespecting their time and talent. I wasn’t braced for the trauma. I was on the verge of tears. I threw myself into the editing, remembering to find space to praise.

The stack of edited pages of my work came back. No red ink. Oh, no — it wasn’t even worth commenting on, second page-nothing and on and on. 11 pages and not one circled word or added comma or strike through- or ^ word choice. I looked at the teacher, expecting to see scorn and disgust, but he was grinning ear to ear.

“You do not know how good you are, do you?” he said in a remarkably kind tone. Others chimed in. It was the best they had read. I didn’t believe them and sadly tossed the work in the trash. I wrote it in five minutes, if that, no way was it any good.

A long story to say, I was right back there frequently during the 30-day challenge. Up against deadlines at work, and pressed for time by other commitments, I would do the 10-minute ritual. Coffee-black now, then write for 10 minutes. Refill the coffee, then edit and post. Selecting the photos turned out to be a nice calming mindful process-well, sort of.

Again I was amazed that the days I truly had no time and just dashed out something just to have something to post because I had made a commitment to do so. I would get the most reader engagement.

This time not throwing any of these in the trash! I still doubt my teacher's evaluation of my skills, but I am compelled to write so I do. Here is the journey across the first seven days.

I was so clearly a medium newbie — you all were beyond kind to me! These were posted before I learned how to get rid of the annoying double space when it comes to poetry.

There’s a Trick (hold shift. then click enter)

Still hadn’t discovered the trick to the double space elimination (hold shift. then enter). But discovered how to add a “kicker.” Except I’m still not doing something right as the kicker often ends up the title-which is not my intention. Also learned by this poem that telling the reader what was coming next increased the probability that I would stick to my promise and write!

On day five I figured out how to get rid of annoying double space and I’d learned to add a reflection at the end. This is what I wrote:

I had a new experience writing this piece — I was mindful in the moment at the same time that I was outside of it watching the process as the piece grew, shifted, evolved.

I ain’t got no time- no time left for tricks

This next piece reverts as oops-out of time, no time to use the “trick” and no time to reflect. I soon discovered I can copy and paste and match style to bypass the annoying double space poetry problem and how long it takes to go line-by-line using “the trick”.

Unexpected challenge delivered through kindness

Day Seven- I realized this community of writers is amazing, kind, and inspiring. They were challenging me to do better by their kindness. They made me want to improve the content and the formatting.

For the full 30 day collection check out Know Thyself, Heal Thyself and meet this wonderfully supportive group of writers

As always, thank you for reading, and remember to leave space to praise.