alliyah's inspo journal
Here's where I'll record my inspo journal entries!
Directing your NaPo
What are your NaPo Goals
The first challenge asks for NaPo goals. And I have a few.
1. I want to definitely write at least one poem every day, so minimum of 30 poems. I may try to write a couple more at the beginning (front loading) just to have a buffer in case things go wrong.
2. I really want to hone in on my poetic style in April and want the poems to feel more like a collection this time around. Last time I sort of did whatever was on my mind, this time I want the poems to go together a bit more.
3. If there's a commenting badge this time around, I want to try to get that too, though not sure I'll try for the other badges... we will see...
Super excited to start brainstorming and start cooking up ideas! I feel like my poetry writing grew a lot last NaPo, even in the poems that were total fails, I felt like I was able to learn from them. Hopefully this April is the same - I certainly don't expect every poem to be excellent, but I do want to learn and grow.
-alliyah 3/1/18
alliyah's inspo journal
7 posts in this topic.
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Post 2: Collecting Inspiration
Where will your inspo come from?
I really love the idea of collecting little lines from other poems that I've written and reworking them as themes or parts of new poems, or just letting them organically inspire something completely different.
Old Lines
1) "if words were people, and people words"
2) "make believe in supersticion"
3) "And they asked who I was"
4) "Catching Hypothermia while waiting for the shower"
Sweet Quotes
5) "We feel and know that we are eternal" - Baruch Spinoza
6)"Love isn't something you find. Love is something that finds you." - Loretta Young
7) "For once you have tasted flight you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will long to return" - Leonardo daVinci
"Wherever you go, go with all your heart" - Confucious
Phrases and Theories
9) Confident Plurality
10) Fusion of Horizons
11) Ship of Theseus
12) Person-First Language
Interesting Words
13) Vituperations
14) Veracity
15) Virulent
16) Ambience
Inspo ImagesSpoiler
I'm not sure any of these will post, so I'll also describe them...
17)
(Image of book stack overflowing avalanche claustrophobic)
18)
(Image of clouds touching the horizon and the earth is out of view)
19)
(Image of Coffee stains reminiscent of ink or blood splatter)
20)
(Image of a mirror without a person in it, reflecting an empty room)
-alliyah 3/8/18 -
Post 3: Planning a Theme
What will my theme be?
What themes do I generally use?
Reading through my old poems and my last NaPo thread too, I've recently sort of organized my poetry into 4 categories, I'll include the four titles that I use for my YWS Portfolio Folders in italics.
1. Loves from other Seasons - Relationship Poetry (more often about heartbreak or after relationship processing, but also about family)
2. Catching Stars and Coming Home - Nature and Truth Poetry (for some reason these go together a lot, where I use some sort of nature imagery or space/sky imagery to discuss truth or religion)
3. What are these Words I Write Poetry about Writing or Poetry (I discuss the process of writing or reading poetry or the power of words)
4. Seeing Where I Stand Identity and Growth Poetry (sometimes this is a revelation of nostalgia or recognition of some aspect of my identity or life growth).
What Themes would I like to use for NaPo?
Last year my poems were somewhat all over the place, this time I want to try to do a collection on one central theme.
The theme that comes to mind that I've been playing with a bit is Growing Up -- involved in that comes the subthemes of adulting, relationships, learning from mistakes, school, work, new family roles, stress, anxiety, responsibility, giving up some childhood stuff, finding who I am, letting go of some things from the past, and dreaming of the future.
I'm hoping that this theme is broad enough to cover the month, but I'm sure it will be since it's basically just "this is where I am in life right now". It's going to be somewhat of a commentary on this awkward stage of life that I feel like I'm in right now, being 22, done with college, in Graduate School, and still trying to figure out how to live in the world.
-alliyah 3/8/18 -
Post 4: Inspo to NaPo Challenge
What will my inspiration be?
So I already thought I did this "Post 2", but I used the wrong categories... so this is attempt number two.
5 media (pictures, movies, music)Spoiler
1.
(I think the idea of adult coloring pages are both pathetic and wonderful. Why do adults need permission to enjoy their life or take a break with labels of "adult coloring pages"? )
2.
(Basically being an adult in one picture - endless washing dishes, making food, and repeat. The sink will not be empty until we are dead.)
3.
(Here's a picture of memory lane, literally. College and Graduate School give me a constant sense of homesickness and nostalgia mixed with appreciation for the freedom.)
4.
(This professional squirrel seems to have his life together - and is an inspiration to me.)
5.
(A cactus chilling in some snow - seems poetic, good luck little guy!)
5 self-created (poems, drawings)
6. A drawing from inktober[/b]Spoiler
(a black inked spruce tree, standing against a white background)
7. [i]Another drawing from inktoberSpoiler
(A tiny door placed at the base of a tree stump for fairies or leprechauns to use)
8. "when chains are bound too tight, too long, the skin grows around them"
9. "I will tell you that I'm sorry, but never for letting go"
10. "some waves of hurt only speak just below the surface"
5 poem structure prompts
11. Write a poem where every even line is a repeated chorus.
12. Write an abecedarian that references the ABC's and is about the educational system.
13. Write a sonnet, coming up with the rhyming words ahead of time.
14. Write a poem about the perceived problems with free-verse poetry.
15. Write a poem about a relationship without using any pronouns.
5 emotion, idea, imagerySpoiler
16. idea The Overview Effect - is when you see earth from space and it changes your perspective. I have never heard a more poetic concept, but would love to write a poem about this. The only issue is that I'm not sure it would make sense without first explaining like the background of the overview effect - and I'm afraid it would end up feeling too expositional/explanatory - with little action.
17. Emotion/Idea - I'm worried that the ground is molding underneath the snow. I think I'd like to write a poem about what's happening to the ground while the snow is just sitting on it all winter. I feel like this could be a fabulous metaphor for life or relationships or goals or really anything.
18. Emotion I really hate when people are super pompous about art, and it seems like they're making up the "meaning of it". Recently went to an art gallery and was frustrated by how many people were so sure they knew exactly what the artists were saying. Sometimes art is junk, sometimes it's subjective, sometimes it's simple.
19. Thoughts on Landscape - The light in my apartment is slowly dying, but I'm too lazy/busy to contact the facilities person to change the light. So now I just leave the window shades open, and it's uncomfortable because sometimes I'll see people walking around outside, but I'd rather have the light.
20. idea - routine - is there something poetic in the tasks I do literally every day, or start my day with? Brushing teeth, getting dressed, eating cheerios, etc. Probably not, but I bet I could make some weird metaphor about it all, or it could just be commentary of the monotony of daily life.
5 Random Inspo
(just going to put 5 random weird words that I'd love to work in/find inspirational - it'd be funny to use them in contexts that don't make sense too)
21. piacular
22. gasconade
23. luculent
24. aspergillum
25. catoptromancyAnd there you go! Challenge completed! Inspo = Ready!
-alliyah 3/12/18 -
I made my own Random Poetic Line Generator in excel last year [super amazing because I can just barely use excel to begin with].
Here's how I made it if you're interested/want to make your own:Spoiler
Here's the code: =choose(randbetween(1,3), "word1", "word2", "word3")
and then you put the words in the place of "word1" etc and increase the number to however many words you have. The first group with that code are all plural nouns (ie. children, flowers, tears, potatoes). The next group of words are a description that could apply to a plural noun (ie. with fear, colored blue, softly, in exile). The next group of words is a verb/action phrase (ie. dance, sing, turn in circles, find truth) and then what I think is a prepositional phrase? or maybe just another description thing (ie. without hate, under the stars). You put all of those 4 code sets in a row (each in their own box), click "F9" and it generates a random sentence. The one I have has like 25 options in each code set, so there are a lot of possibilities for sentences and then it'll pop out something like: "children in exile sing without hate" or whatever other way the words combine.
Here are some of my favorite random poem sentences that I've generated from my random poem generator that maybe I'll try to incorporate into some of my NaPo poetry.
1. dancers of yesterday leap beyond our view in one last effort
2. lullabies of forever sing their songs even when time stops
3. you and I with loneliness taste the sunset tonight
4. promises like gatekeepers reveal who we are like we might forget -
Post 6: Style
What is this poetic style you speak of?
What's my current poetic style?
*note to self that I maybe should re-organize my portfolio a bit more chronologically because it is an absolute pain to find anything.
Recently, here's some trends I see in my poetic style:
- Lot's of use of "and"(so, but, because) lots of run on sentences, to show narrative continuity or linking ideas.
- words I use a lot: and, stars, coffee, rain, I, between, breath, remember, sand, sing, moon, whisper, waves
-a lot of my poems seems like past-tense reflections, I have hardly any poems in present tense.
-I feel like way too many of my poems are written in the form of reflections on break-ups or past relationships, although generally when I write these it's not to communicate a message about a specific relationship but to reflect on ideas like memory, regret, finding your voice, growing up, moving forward etc. I just use the relationship as a lens in which to discuss different topics.
-Word choice and phrasing is often contemplative maybe a bit philosophical, causal/conversational in some pieces, but not always.
Here are some different formatting styles I use:
-several stanzas with same number of even lines. (uses capital letters and punctuation) Poetry is Still Not Easy
-two voices/time periods go back and forth with one part in italics (less punctuation and capitals) lots of parallel/echoing structure and phrasing. When Spring Has Passed
-more white space, no/few capitals, varied line lengths, lots of run-ons
love like sawdust
- other: letter form, one big mass of text, two halves, or a combination of these styles.
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Style Goals for NaPo
I would like to develop my style more during NaPo, write now I think I do have a poetic style but it's kind of varied. Part of the fun of NaPo is actually trying out different styles so I'm not sure I could say I want to commit to one specific style - but some aspects I think I need to work into my style more would be:
-Less relationship poetry, I think that theme is getting a bit redundant in my poetry. [After re-reading several of my poems, one of my NaPo goals is now to not write a single relationship themed poem for the first 10 days... we'll see if it can be done]
-Watch out for redundancy in themes/imagery/language in general - keep it fresh and varied. [Last NaPo I struggled with this a bit at the end, having way too many space/moon imagery poems].
-Maybe play with white-space poems a bit more and paragraph poetry.
- Vary the mood of the poems [I don't want all of my poems to be sad or anxiety-inducing].
-Maybe try writing in present tense a few times?
-also let's stop doing capital letters and unnecessary punctuation maybe. We'll see?
Recently I like the poems I've written that experiment with stanza structure a bit more, I think it opens up opportunity for more unique phrasing - would like to pull some aspects of these poem's style into my NaPo pieces:
love like sawdust
thoughts well-worn
it's complicated
My reflections on style are sort of all over the board, but I will try to reflect on this topic a bit more during April.
-alliyah 3/20/18 -
Post 7: Random Ideas
Just grabbing a few last notes of inspiration before April hits.
Random Lines:
(from other poems I've written that could be resurrected)
-"I don't believe in regret. Drowning twice rarely solves the problem."
- "If the words that dance on my lips could ever reach you, I would not stop singing."
-"They asked me to carry my emotions in an urn."
Other themes/ideas for poetry:
education, coffee, caffeine, addiction, lack-of-sleep/rest, lack-of-practical skills, home-sickness, losing track of people, hiking in the snow, pointless leisure, technology drain.
Challenge:
Besides the challenges I've already set for myself above (ie. follow a theme, write 30 poems, try to incorporate some of my inspo, and don't write about relationships for the first 10 poems) here are two specific challenges I'd like to try:
1)Writing a poem in Hebrew!
My Hebrew skills are so limited, but I'm actually taking a class this semester where the first third of the course was just about Hebrew Poetry - I feel like I could maybe put a poem together in Hebrew and incorporate some traditional Hebrew poetic conventions like chiasmic structure, parallelism, figurative language etc. So I am hoping to at least try to write one poem in Hebrew during the course of NaPo.
2) Write a backwards-forwards poem.
@HalfbloodFangirl and I were actually talking about this, so I give them credit for the idea. But I'd love to try my hand at writing another poem that can be read backwards and forwards. I attempted this long ago, and although I really did have an intended meaning for both readings of the poem, it ended up being incomprehensible - so was kind of a fail. Since then, I've been too afraid to try this style of poetry writing again, since it went so poorly the first time - but I think it might be time to try again!Spoiler
Here's my old backwards-forwards poem: Night of the People--People of the Sun
And that's all!I am ready for April.
-alliyah 3/28/18
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