On the 1st April I had an idea of how I might partake in #NaPoWriMo for the first time. I'm not a prolific writer of #poems, often I will go weeks or months between writing anything at all. Of course these poems always juggle my acceptance of them with the denial of their worth. It's a trying formula for the unending trap of never (or so infrequent so as to be barely noticeable) sending anything out for hopeful publication.
That is something that I believe the 'write a poem every day for a month' venture is an antidote for. People share first and/or early drafts of poems freely anywhere they like because it is about the exploration of possibility rather than an end goal of adulation by publishing.
However, my idea included something that could really piss off people who have been drawn into another distraction for these times: Wordle. You see for some time now, in the early hours of each morning, usually as a way to distract myself from another functional seizure, I have spent about ten minutes religiously completing the word puzzles of Wordle and two reinterpretations of it, Quordle, and Octordle. Practically everyone knows of Wordle these days, the guess a five letter word in six goes or less word puzzle. Quordle gives you eight goes to guess four words, and Octordle gives thirteen tries for eight words.
The three, as I say, are a minor addiction. With #NaPoWriMo happening though, back on the 1st April it occurred to me that I could write a poem each day utilising the words from these three puzzles (whether I got them right nor not). However, I couldn't share the first one on that day because it could upset people due to being a potential spoiler for the answers. This put me off and so I wrote nothing on the first of the month, nothing on the second or third either, though I did keep a record of the words each day.
Then today something unlocked in me and I thought yes, today will be a good day to start. It's far enough away from the puzzle days to not be a spoiler at all. So, that is what I am doing. My very own #NaPoWriMo (one week late but better than never) where every poem is titled by the days Wordle result, and is then a 12 line poem in which each word is (in order) the results of that same days Quordle and Octordle.
And because of the joy of #NaPoWriMo, none of them matter more than the experience of doing and sharing them.
Thanks for reading,
Robert
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Poem 1: #NaPoWriMo 2022
(Wordle, Quordle & Octordle results from 1st April)
SNOUT
Some look at it and say It’s mauve!
Myself, a minor player in proceedings,
take the temperature of the room. A handy
way to gouge a furrow to the exit
if the group upends my mask and,
as if trapped in a similarly upended tepee,
the mask becomes a demon weighed down;
made from adobe instead of porcelain
such that it is as awful as you imagine.
I look around and see my own gloom
stretching through the party. Eject me now,
I say silently, before they notice this body is one I stole.