Well . . . I did make it through the 30 Days, 30 Poems (& 30 Forms)* challenge for National Poetry Month with some semblance of a brain left over—I think. And though there were many days I would come home late and still have to check in to get the prompt, I could usually figure out a form to use. Also, I’d kept a couple of short forms for those days when I knew I would be away from home.

What did I learn from doing this?

–that writing in a more formal style than I usually do can be challenging and fun.

–I found a few forms I really like a lot.

–writing a sonnet is not as horrible a task as I thought it might be.

–that some forms are awkward fits to the theme of a poem.

–some forms, esp. those that require refrains, fit other themes perfectly. (Such as “raging at the gods.” The refrain feels like one is raging.)

–a refrain has to be a great stand-alone line for it to be heard repeatedly in a poem and work well.

What did I get from doing this?

–a little more confidence in myself and my ability to work within given constraints.

–a few great lines.

–fewer good poems, but some excellent drafts that I can polish. (Some will need to have their forms changed.)

–a sense of being able to work under pressure.

–pride in having finished such a challenge with the added constraint of the forms/techniques.

–a broader sense of being part of a community of poets.

– tired fingers, tired brain . . .

–a great deal of satisfaction.

Would I do it again? You bet!

 *NOTE:  The 30 Days/30 Poems/30 Forms page has been taken down. (These were primarily rough drafts, necessarily written in less than a day. I left them up for the month, and then took them down to polish some of them. Email me at:  shutta AT shuttacrum DOT com if you’d like access to any of the poems you might have seen during the month. Thanks!)

Happy Poetry . . . Keep Writing!

Shutta