As April draws to a close, so does national poetry month. As last year, this month, I have challenged myself to write a poem a day. Rather than post them all here, I have been sharing my efforts with my poetry group. It has been fun and stimulating.
During this beautiful month of the changes we can see happening all around us in nature, I have been pondering more and more about personal growth and how I can change, flourish and blossom as a creative human being.
I have been writing alongside everyone else in my poetry group using a daily prompt. It has been incredible to see so many different poems arising from the same prompt, so many different approaches to the same theme. To share, to give and receive comments and constructive feedback with other poets has been inspiring and motivates me to continue writing poetry.
It is truly remarkable for me that I can now say, yes …. I am a writer …. and finally I am poet. I was maths, function and logically orientated at school, being fearful of expressing myself during English lessons and avoided wherever possible poetry and essay writing … I didn’t really appreciate what a poem was until about five years ago and didn’t start regularly writing poems until 2022 … now I find I can’t stop. I find this really interesting, as I am convinced it is this discovery of who I really am (the soul) that is driving my creative journey (the yoga, the writing, the art, the singing and the dancing) leading to a ‘coming together’ and a connection I feel with the universe (the divine).
Writing poems is a mindful activity … as a writer, for me, it is essential to be an observer … of myself, of my behaviours and of other people’s behaviours and generally of the world around me, especially the natural world. I am curious … always asking silent questions within my mind, and pondering what the answers might be … it fires up my imagination and enables me to create prose pieces and now poetry.
April is a great month to write. There is so much change happening in nature, new beginnings, new life new stimulus for my senses to spark creativity. This time of year though, I have to work harder at being more mindful and aware, to really notice the changes happening around me, because everything is changing at such an alarming rate. Now is when the year seems to accelerate. How one moment, I may look out of the window and see the prunus tree in the front garden in blossom and the next, realise the blossom has blown away and the tree is full of its rich burgundy leaf covering. How did that happen and how did I not notice when several times day I walk, cycle, or drive past it?
Being aware of the changes happening inside me too is a mindful practice. It’s a terrible cliche, but nothing stays the same. Our bodies change from moment to moment, our emotions, our behaviours, our relationships. This is why during April, I like to take up the challenge to embrace writing each day.
Thinking of my writing practice as a sacred pause helps. Once a day, I consciously take the time to stop everything I’m doing and focus on the here and now …. just being. I either sit up with a straight spine or lie down on the floor and concentrate on my breathing. Conscious breathing as part of my yoga practice is essential for stilling my mind and tuning into my body and applying this same technique to my writing practice really helps. I can then more easily get in touch with my feelings and use this as pathway to a deeper heart-mind connection and therefore a more fruitful mining of words. From this place of stillness (and it may only take ten minutes), I find I can move into my writing time more centred and focussed and therefore crafting a poem comes more easily.
Taking a sacred pause to consciously breathe well can hep with any creative endeavour and during April, I’ve been using it with my art too. This month, I haven’t managed to complete a collage painting, but I have been playing around with pink and green, a great combination. It’s been playful and fun.
During April I have been experimenting with Japanese forms of poetry. Here are three poems using three such forms … all with the theme of the moon.
The Tanka Form
yellow moon appears
blooming in a purple sky
bleeding red petals
choosing pleasure over pain
I release you from my dreamsÂ
The Haibun Form
A silver moon large as a golden sun bathes the earth and the oceans with pearly light. The wolf howls at a million stars and deep beneath the waves, the blue whale moans, blowing a million tiny bubbles in the air.
earth, ocean, wolf, whale
greeting, calling, connecting
universal love Â
The Haiku Form
lavender moonshine
dozy dormouse unfurls his
caramel belly