an [other] #NaPoWriMo?

Rabbit Room Poetry is facilitating a poem-a-day challenge for the month of November!

With #NaNoWriMo officially done, this is a hijacking after my own heart.

Find them on Substack for daily poetry prompts designed to kickstart your creativity and help you start or continue a writing rhythm.

Their inaugural theme is Words of Community.

From their Substack:

"Our creative work—and our lives—are richer when we are together. The breadth and depth of our connections with those around us can not only catalyze our own spiritual growth but also help transform the world. Through this year’s theme, we’ll ponder not only the role of interdependence in creative acts but also the power of community in our own lives."

Every Sunday, they’ll provide a list of daily prompts for the coming week. You can subscribe to Rabbit Room Poetry at the link above to have that list delivered right to your inbox, or you can follow along in their Substack Notes, where they'll be sharing each day’s prompt as well.

If you wish, you can share your poems by leaving them in the comments section on each note or on the weekly prompt post.

As a way to develop some illusion of discipline I will attempt to do each prompt and will post them here on the blog (and perhaps on the Rabbit Room Substack as well).

Join me (or at least follow along)!

#NaPoWriMo - day thirty

(find me a map)
(help me find the stars)
the paths are overgrown.
(find me a map)
covered in stones.
open the tomb.
we’ll gather at the appropriate time.
don’t worry; i’ll remind you
bring flowers.
bring words.
bring stories.
bring friends.
it’s time to decide which stories to tell.
make friends with the ghosts.
rouse yourself.
listen:
you will be missed.
you were always beautiful.
we keep expecting you to be here.
we face the difficult truth.
we wear our serious faces.
we consider the odds.
we are surrounded by friends and lovers.
hopes and dreams/ thoughts and prayers.
prepare the books.
a palimpsest of loss.
the bones of regret.
broken by time.
forever scarred by the sacred.
(find me a map)

#NaPoWriMo - day twenty nine

(and in the morning)
 
we invent our excuses
 
*
 
our bodies tell us
our stories
 
*
 
how often
the sounds you make
at night are different from
the sounds you make
during the day
 
*
 
forget words
 
*
 
say hello
to your animal self
 
i bear the marks
in my flesh
 
*
 
sometimes you make no sound
at all
 
so let us be kissed by silence
 
*
 
you made me believe
you were graced by emptiness
 
*
 
you tell me
there is constant music
if only you will listen
 
but i don’t believe you
 
i’ve never heard you sing

#NaPoWriMo - day twenty eight

the state
of being
constantly
under
threat
 
the constant
rounds of
disappointment
 
we run from one
battle to the next
 
*
 
this is the year
of broken hands
 
this is the decade
of just getting it done
 
this is a lifetime
of just around
the corner
 
this is the year
of jubilee
 
*
 
waiting for a seat
at the table
waiting for the
right moment
 
every week
the same groceries
every day
a planned meal
 
every morning
a new mantra
we wear like
running shoes
 
*
 
too busy
too often
too tired
too distracted
 
too bored
too full
too little
too much
 
*
 
we lie in the sun
until our bellies burst
we lie in the sun until
we’re bleached bones
 
in the valleys
a rattling
the wind
rushing

#NaPoWriMo - day twenty seven

There are roughly 206 bones in the average human body. We were born with around 270.
 
Some people inherit traits that lead to the development of extra bones in the feet, hands, or even the spinal column.
 
About 8% of people have at least one extra rib. Overall, about 15% of people have more or fewer than the standard 206 bones.
 
The largest bone in the human body is the femur or thigh bone. The smallest bones are the ossicles found in the middle ear: the malleus, incus, and stapes.
 
I have broken so many bones. I have broken bones even now. I could make a book with the x-rays.
 
As bones heal, they undergo remodeling. The newly formed bone reshapes itself. 
 
I’ll endure the pain. I will remain patient. Let me be transformed.