Finding HopeESCAPRIL 2023 (With A Sprinkling of NaPoWriMo)
Posted on May 6, 2023
TW: Mentions of blood, injury, dermatillomania, and drug use.
April has come and gone and the poetry challenges – ESCAPRIL and NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) – are over. I am such a fan of these challenges and I keep meaning to seek out more of them; I love writing poetry but it tends to be the creative outlet that always slips down my list of priorities, just because there’s always so much to do. So a challenge or series of prompts is a great impetus to get writing again. I didn’t manage to write everyday, especially at the beginning of the month when I was still in Nashville and then releasing my new single, ‘House on Fire,’ but when I got into it, I couldn’t stop writing.
On the whole, I wrote more for ESCAPRIL than I did for Na PoWriMo. I think I was just more inspired by this year’s prompts from the former. Plus I think it’s fair to say that more of the NaPoWriMo prompts experiment with form and structure whereas ESCAPRIL focusses on content, the part of poetry writing that I find more exciting and fulfilling.
ESCAPRIL encourages participants to post their work on social media throughout the month but I’ve never engaged in that part of the challenge; doing the challenge is for me and my writing, although I do enjoy sharing some of my favourites at the end of the month. I mean, that’s why I do this blog post. But I can’t imagine posting a piece right after writing it, when it’s still soo fresh and raw; that sounds more than a little bit terrifying. Anyway…
Here are the prompts for 2023:
Here are a few of my favourites from the month. A lot of them weren’t comfortable to write – and now to read – but they feel raw and real and that’s what’s most important to me in poetry, especially my own…
ESCAPRIL
NaPoWriMo
(Inspired, obviously, by the short film, The Nettle Dress.)
So there you have it, a handful of the poems I wrote throughout April, inspired by these two challenges. I feel like a lot of dark stuff comes out in my poetry, as well as stuff that I went through when I was younger, I think because I didn’t necessarily have the the emotional maturity to recognise what I was feeling or the language to describe those feelings. Some of them come from my present day brain though, working through stuff by writing about it. That is, after all, what writing poetry is for me, in whatever form that may take.
ESCAPRIL 2022 (Plus a Pinch of NaPoWriMo)
Posted on May 1, 2022
TW: Mentions of suicidal thoughts.
A new month, a new challenge! It was actually two challenges but I’ll come back to that. As much as I love writing poetry, I always feel like it slips down my to do list – because there’s always something that has to fall away, isn’t there – but with April came the ESCAPRIL poetry challenge. The challenge actually involves posting what you’ve written to social media but I don’t tend to do that; the challenge is more for me and my writing practice than anything else. I have enjoyed posting a handful of my favourites from each challenge over the last few years though so here I am again, sharing some of my favourites from this year. I didn’t manage to write every day – and given the month I had, I’m kind of amazed I wrote anything at all – but I really like some of the pieces I did write.
Here are this year’s prompts:
Here are some of my favourites from the month. They’re not all comfortable, but they all feel real and raw and that’s what is most important to me in poetry…
April also hosts National Poetry Writing Month and I was inspired by a few prompts from that too.
When prompted to write about something big…
And then, of course, prompted to write about something small…
I really struggled to write this month, which was frustrating but there wasn’t much I could do about it – beyond what I was already doing anyway. I tried my best. I always find it harder to create when my mental health isn’t great and I have been struggling recently. I tried my various tricks to get the words flowing but it’s just been hard. Having said that, I do like some of the poems I wrote and I wrote more that I’d like to come back to and rework when my brain is functioning a bit faster, a bit better. If nothing else, doing the challenge meant I learned that some stars can just disappear – my new favourite fact – so I’m not complaining.
ESCAPRIL 2021
Posted on May 1, 2021
Last year, I discovered the ‘ESCAPRIL‘ poetry challenge and made my first attempt at completing it. The challenge involves a poetry prompt for every day in April that can be used in whatever way inspires you. You then post the piece you’ve written on social media. I don’t tend to post my poems; the challenge is really just for me and my writing practice. But, I enjoyed posting a handful on here last year so I thought I’d do the same again.
I’ll readily admit that I was not very consistent this year. My university deadline was halfway through the month so that ate up a lot of time and once that was done, I was completely exhausted (and hit with what felt like endless migraines) so it wasn’t the ideal time for the challenge but I did my best; I did the prompts that inspired me as they inspired me. That was all I could manage this year.
Here are this year’s prompts:
So, now the month and the challenge are over and I wanted to share some of my favourite pieces. It was really fun to write in this form again and I definitely feel like I wrote things that I wouldn’t have written otherwise. And that’s the goal, right? To stretch yourself and try new things and see what they inspire…
So I hope you liked these, that they aren’t too weird or clunky or obscure. I’m out of practice at writing poetry so it was a bit of a struggle to get back into that mindset, plus I’ve had a ridiculously busy month. I didn’t get to write as much as I would’ve liked to but it felt good to write what I did, so maybe I’ll come back to these prompts when I have more time (not that I have any idea when that will be).
Anyway, as I said, I hope you like them. I hope they’re okay. I like writing poetry but I have no idea if I’m actually any good at it. It’s something that I only really do for myself. But then a challenge is called a challenge for a reason.
Finding Hope 