NaPoWriMo 2013: a retrospective

NaPoWriMo is just about done now and I'm coming away from it with a minimum of four good poems. Looking back over this past month of daily poetry-writing exercises, I have come to the conclusion that during this writing-marathon, more than anything else, I have given myself more freedom to experiment with poetic form.

I wrote my first prose(-ish) poem while composing some green-tinged Dorothy-Gale-in-Tornado-Alley poems to submit for Fairy Tale Review's Emerald Issue, a celebration of the 75th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz.

Another experimental-form poem I wrote is titled "Prometheus goes on a blind date," which was partly inspired by descriptions of the shrike in the new show Hannibal. This poem is cut in half down the page. On the verso, is a description of a shrike (the bird) eating its prey. Reflected back on the recto, is a description of the Titan Prometheus on an awkward first date in a contemporary setting. The poem can be read from left to right across the page or from top to bottom, on first the left and then the right. The events on left and right are chronologically connected, yet separate. I have no idea if there is a name for this form, I only know that I have read something similar before. 


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