Young Writers Society

I mentioned this on my wall as a half-joke that I was vaguely considering, but the more I think about it, the more I want to go with the idea. So I will aim to write 10 poems. I'd like to get the hearty halfway badge, but I have failed to meet my goal 100% of the time that I've participated in NaPo so far xP So we're going to go with a conservative 10 to improve the likelihood of actually following through -- and if we get to 15, well, then, good.

I would absolutely love to write poems from the perspective of each character, but I'm not sure that I have a solid enough grasp on each of their voice to be able to manage it, especially since poetry doesn't come naturally to me and I can generally write two chapters in the time it takes me to write and format a single short poem lol

So I will try to write a poem from the perspective of Jerica Ainsley, Kylia Ruiarc, and Pratik Chrenko. I will also try to write a poem about Jerica, Ky, and Pratik, as well Rekard Ainsley, Derik Ainsley, Zander Ainsley, and Aerik Munen.

Other characters it'd be fun to write a poem about would be Aashi, Tadaaki, Aleth Klev, Lord Biryn, and Kieran to get me up to 15, but I am far less confident about my ability to write poetry about these five. And of course, a standard disclaimer about switching my goals around if I manage to get firmly in the right headspace and get inspo for a specific character and end up writing eight poems about Jerica a single character.

Table of Contents

1. Kylia.
2. malediction
3. embers
4. shadows of my dejection
5. a haiku i am too lazy to name

Hi Shady! Happy NaPo!

I really like these overall, though I feel compelled to point out the second one is very hard to read even for an image poem (didn't help that I am not familiar with the word "termagant"). The character's voice is really strong, like they're clearly very smart but also full of self-hatred. I'd be really interested to see more of this story from the perspective of other characters.

@niteowl thanks so much for the kind words! It’s definitely good to know that it’s hard to read — if I ever get around to revisions, I’ll be sure to play around with it more.

I, too, would like to see this story from the perspective of other characters xD but alas, Ky is the only one cooperating so far. I’m finding it extremely challenging (but enjoyable!) to adopt their persona strongly enough to write poetry from their POV. But at the very least I’m going to try to pump out one more from s o m e o n e ‘ s POV to get my high five badge haha

Still Ky's POV, going for sort of similar ~ v i b e z ~ as embers ^-^

i feel his hatred;
but now i know i'm much more:
my father's daughter

(sends a high-five over to Shady for the photo-finish! You did it! Not cheating, that's called resourceful! :])

Even not knowing much about your novels / characters, I think the concept of writing character poetry made for a lot emotional depth in your poems - they feel like there's a whole world and story behind them. The concrete metaphor in "embers" made that poem my favorite, but you've got some powerful lines in the other poems as well. "an austere landscape to mirror / the graveyard of my abandoned dreams" I thought was particularly vivid phrasing.

Good job this month Shady! Always fun to see your poetry on the site.