Belated NaPoWriMo: NPM Poem a Day Challenge

graphic courtesy of Houston's Writers in the Schools (WITS)

Is late better than never? I recall the occasional classroom martinet who would lock the classroom doors, smugly announcing "better never than late." As someone who entered a UC Comparative Literature PhD program at 50, I beg to differ. If you must argue the point, I can always inflict dss chapters on you in cyperspace at 20 paces.

When ReadWritePoem folded its tent, taking its daily NaPoWriMo prompts with it, I missed coming up with another daily poetry writing challenge to plog for National Poetry Month. The daily challenge in The Writers Digest poetry blog, "Poetic Asides with Robert Lee Brewer, was in my feed reader but overlooked the whole time. That will happen with a McGee's closet among feed readers, eclectic and overflowing. 

Another problem may have been that I started and stopped searching too soon: check out NaPoWriMo Net + FAQ page. Instead of submitting or posting poems to the mothership, register and link your blog. Kudos if you start late and catch up. So what if you don't: 20 or 21 poems in as many days ain't shabby ... or even if you just read the poems and think "I could do that, maybe next year."  


Whatever... just think of all the prompts you'll have for another day. After all, you can never be too thin, too rich or have too many writing prompts.


Today's prompt:

Today, try to write a poem backwards. I don’t mean letter by letter, or word by word, but line by line. Start by writing out an old saying that takes the form of a declarative statement. Like “Birds of a feather flock together,” or “A miss is as good as a mile.” That will be the last line of your poem. 

... and now back to "Asides" PAD Challenge (mercifully brief) prompts:

• 2011 April PAD Challenge Day 1
• 2011 April PAD Challenge Day 2
• 2011 April PAD Challenge Day 3
• 2011 April PAD Challenge Day 4
• 2011 April PAD Challenge Day 5
• 2011 April PAD Challenge Day 6
• 2011 April PAD Challenge: Day 7
• 2011 April PAD Challenge: Day 8

and today... but you're on your own from here: 2011 April PAD Challenge: Day 9: 

write a time of day poem.  In fact, make the title of your poem the time of day.  For instance, "5:54 a.m.," 2:23 p.m.," "Midnight," etc.  Then, write your poem.  Of course, different things happen at different times of day.  So have fun with it.

"6:35 a.m."

Or is it 7:35? 
I mean, I know what it is in Austin,
but I'm from Georgia before that
Ohio.  Can't just erase
32 years of Eastern Standard
in one road trip.  Or maybe you can,
but I know I can't.  After all this time,
I suppose I'd need an entire
sabbatical or retreat to truly
feel Centralized, though it's too late now --
now that it's 7:36.