by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo
I am not a morning pages poet, nor am I a write everyday poet. To write every day, or close to every day, is something I have to work at, and by work I mean, it takes trickery. It takes a challenge like Poem-A-Day that happens every April for National Poetry Month. If you’ve never heard of this event, it’s similar to National Novel Writing Month—commonly known as NaNoWriMo—in September but without the cute name. For the month of April, in celebration of NPM, poets around the country and even the world, challenge themselves to write one new poem a day for 30 days. To help, many websites and journals give daily writing prompts. Many are free and some take a subscription. But here’s the thing, you don’t have to wait for April to challenge yourself, and to be honest, I have never successfully accomplished writing 30 poems in 30 days in April, and to be even more honest, I’ve only tried once, maybe twice.
In fact, the only times I’ve successfully written every day for an extended amount of time have been when I’ve gone away for a writing residency. It’s actually incredibly easy to write every day when you have vacated your home for 25 days and have no responsibilities to speak of beyond keeping yourself and your space tidy and writing. Being a writer in residence means you have been put up for 2-4 weeks in a beautiful local with a comfy bed to sleep in and a quiet desk to write at both most likely with views of a forest, or prairie, or ocean-side bluff. Your meals are taken care. Your email has been set with an automated response: “I am currently away on a writing retreat until ____. I will be checking and replying to emails periodically. Your patience is appreciated.” Your bills were paid and squared away before you left. All your deadlines were met. Children are being cared for (I don’t have children). Pets are being fed. And someone is enjoying your car while you’re gone. When you are a writer in residence, there is nothing to do but take long walks, sit in the bath, pick flowers, read, eat, and oh, yes, write.
The very first writing residency I attended was at Ragdale Foundation in North Shore Chicago. For 25 days my only responsibility was writing a first draft of a novel. I had a warm, quaint cottage room overlooking a red brick courtyard and nothing but time. I thought, “Well, shit. I better write something.” And write I did. A novel written in letters, I gave myself the assignment to write at least three new letters a day. (This was another trick I gave myself since letters aren’t much longer than a poem.) As days increased so did my output, and by the final day, I had a complete first draft. It was magical.
Since then, there have been times when I think, “Well, I’ll just make my own residency at home,” but it’s not so simple. Jobs, friends, family, laundry, dishes, bills, oil changes, and all the other everyday obligations get in the way of regular pages. So what do you do?
One friend suggested I try The Grind, a by-invitation email group that asks members to write a new piece of work a day for one month. A form of accountability, the administrator places poets and writers into email groups of about 10 people. The only expectation is members send one new piece a day to the group. No one is expected to read. No one is expected to comment. All members are expected to do is write and send. I know a couple of poets who have had major success with this, which, if you participate for 3 months, has the potential to help you produce at least 90 new pieces. These pieces are most likely raw, scraps even, and some may only be one sentence, but still, it’s material to play with.
I hated it. I have come to realize that I don’t like joining any group or organization that increases the number of emails flooding my inbox. Remember that instant reply message set in my email? I live for setting that instant reply! But I did like the idea of being beholden to another person, so what I did was invite one friend to join me in a 20-day challenge. For 20 days, we were to write new pages and send our new work to the other person with the same stipulations, no one was expected to read or comment. And that worked for a while until I realized that the other person was only a crutch. I could do a 20-day challenge on my own.
Whenever I feel a need to start producing more material, I open a new document, title it “20 Day Challenge” with the date and begin. I mark the top of each page with the day and the date before writing a new poem: Day 5 February 14, 2018. The challenge can start whenever you like and doesn’t have to coincide with any day or date, but at first, you may consider beginning on the first of the month, the first day of the season, or if you are into phases of the moon, with a new moon. The new moon is a good time to set intentions such as to write every day, and if that’s of interest to you, the next new moon is March 17, 2018.
Tips for writing a poem-a-day:
- Try writing at the same time every day. I write after lunch once I’ve had some experiences in my day to reflect on. As I mentioned before, I’m not a morning pages writer because I find it difficult to write before I have fed my mind inspiration, but midday seems to work.
- Don’t expect the poem to be in fact a poem. At this point, you are creating raw material. Be ok with building a shapeless mound of clay. Later, you can go back and see if you can sculpt it into art, but for now, let it be whatever it is that comes out of you.
- Try sitting for ten minutes, and see what comes out. 10 minutes is all you need!
If you miss a day, still write the day and date on a blank page, and maybe make a note about what you did that day. For example, just the other day I wrote: “Day 9: February 18, 2018. Went to Brunch for T’s birthday.” Sometimes I will go back and write something for that day, but most of the time I don’t. - Don’t beat yourself up for missing a day or two. It’s your challenge, make of it what you will.
- Get a buddy if you need a buddy, but also know you can do it alone.
Inspiration for writing a poem-a-day:
- Take a walk and see where your mind wonders. When you get back, write down all your random thoughts.
- Take time to read a new poem, a new chapter in a novel, or even a page in a novel and write a response to what you read.
- Try stealing a favorite line by making it the title of your poem and see what happens.
- Visit an art exhibit and write a response to a piece in the exhibit.
- Ask a friend to send you a photo from their own library of photos and write a poem from the photo. (It’s helpful if you know your friend is a good photographer.)
- Journal all your feelings and thoughts. Spill on to the page, then take pieces from your journal for a collage poem.
- Notice what you notice. I heard this advice from movie director, Miguel Arteta during his talk for junior high kids when I volunteered with 826LA. He said, “To be a writer, you only have to notice what you notice.” As you go through your day, pay attention to what catches your eye: the way your coworker left out the creamer, a character in your favorite TV show that seems to be unfairly treated, a funny misspelling on a street sign, the misplaced baby shoe sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. Whatever it is, write it at the top of your page, and see what comes.
After you’ve done a 20-day challenge, be sure to look back at what you’ve created. You will most likely be pleasantly surprised to find the beginnings of a poem or two.
If you’re new to poetry and interested in more prompts and strategies, consider taking my online class, Spanner, Slammer, Socket: Building a Poet’s Toolbox, through Antioch University’s Inspiration2Publication starting April 2nd. If you are looking for a writing class or workshop, be sure to check out what other classes they offer, or see what courses are being offered at UCLA Extension, Writers Workshops LA, and Writing Pad.
Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, a first-generation Chicana, is the author of Posada: Offerings of Witness and Refuge (Sundress Publications 2016). A former Steinbeck Fellow, Poets & Writers California Writers Exchange winner and Barbara Deming Memorial Fund grantee, she’s received residencies from Hedgebrook, Ragdale, National Parks Arts Foundation and Poetry Foundation. Her work is published in Acentos Review, CALYX, crazyhorse, and American Poetry Review among others. A dramatization of her poem “Our Lady of the Water Gallons,” directed by Jesús Salvador Treviño, can be viewed at latinopia.com. She is a co-founder of Women Who Submit and a member of Macondo Writers’ Workshop.