Year of Poetry Update - End of Month Two

I note that this month began with a hospitalization and ended with a publication.  Hopefully the former isn't a requirement of the later.

In terms of the experience so far, while at times I have been extremely tired (this is partially to do with illness) I do think I have developed a strong habit and I find myself getting a little anxious when I haven't sat down and written for more than a day.

I also note that I seem to be indicating to myself in my daily reflections that I might be pushing myself  hard (I don't seem to take notice of myself unfortunately).  So in an effort to listen to what I am saying I decided not to do any poetry writing today and just type up this monthly reflection(still about 2 hours of work).

Looking back over this month I finished both A Poet's Guide to Poetry and Making Your Own Days  in terms of their usefulness for technical study - they both still have a wealth of notes and exercises which I will utilize in the poetry writing segment.  That being said I made several notes in my daily reflections to return to certain concepts that I felt I was only gaining a shallow understanding of.

There were two light bulb moments:

• My discovery and use of syllabic.  Now I had of course come across syllabic poetry before and read it, but working with a syllable restriction and studying good poets who use it was extremely beneficial.  Indeed a couple of poems/poetic ideas seemed to unlock themselves when I had the syllables as a scaffold.

• The realization that I first and foremost fall for poems where the music (sound, rhythm, rhyme,melody) is one of the elements that the poet is pushing to the forefront.  Hence I am a sucker for most poets who do this and who I hear read their poems.  That's not to say I don't appreciate or even attempt myself to focus on the other elements merely I think that poetry that does focus on music seems familiar to those who aren't educated in poetry.

As I mentioned in the intro above I managed one publication this month, you can read it at Bluepepper : Black Snake Driving.  I also have two other poems out on submission.

For those with an interest in stats here's this weeks along with the running total

Total time: 12:43 (140:45) hrs

poem writing = 6:08 (53:38) hrs
close reading = 2:45 (33:35) hrs
technique/theory 2:50 (30:53) hrs
reflection = 1:10(11:59) hrs


Poetry written:


11 poems completed
1 poem abandoned
1 drafted


Poems Submitted:

3 poems

Poems Published:

1 poem