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Be quiet and listen
Open mic nights are wonderful spaces. They are brilliant places to try new work in front of audiences and get instant feedback. But more than that, they are places where you can listen to the voices of others and learn from them. It's essential in these times to be in the same space as others and listen to their words.
NaPoWriMo Lessons
I've done NaPoWriMo for the last three years. I've found it hugely useful to create new poetry and improve my craft. The process of writing thirty poems in thirty days is not a great achievement, but it is a useful one. It highlighted a couple of things to me:
Napowrimo 2019 day 30
Faster Than Light
Let us wander around the symmetry
and geometry of narrow alleys
that shift around us as we meet
ourselves walking towards us
smiling as we will do soon.
NaPoWriMo 2019 day 29
Rewritten
Eyes flicker and head reels.
I am lost and dizzy from
another reality adjustment.
Precious seconds to get my bearings,
probing my memory for gaps,
a tongue checking missing teeth.
NaPoWriMo 2019 day 28
An Invitation
Come cross the sea at night
when the moon is a target
pierced by an arrow, a jet
stream shot from distant lands.
NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 27
Emergency Protocol
If you are hearing these words
then our efforts were futile.
We were an ant trying to halt
an avalanche, a single voice
trying to cross the endless void.
NaPoWriMo 2019 day 26
Conversion Rate
You are a grizzled space marine
reporting for duty on the SS Hermes.
Humanity faces a new and terrible threat.
You are our only hope for survival.
Whilst saving the galaxy, why not
look stylish with optional upgrades?
NaPoWriMo 2019 day 25
Tempest
When storm clouds spell put your name,
it's hard not to take it personally.
Shifting letters, miles high, grow heavy
and dark as they fill the sky.
NaPoWriMo 2019 day 23
The Kite Festival
The dates are always unknown.
It is never scheduled or planned.
NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 22
Ordinary Omens
Thousands of seagulls descended
yesterday on one street corner.
The air was thick with wings,
No-one thought it strange.