NPMC2016: Poem 5: A Nonet about Waiting or Life.

One part of the National Poetry Month Challenge is actually trying to write every day. Or often enough to get a poem every day. Which, and this may sound silly coming from someone who both loves to write and considers themselves a writer, is more challenging than it seems-- at first! It's all about habit building.

As one of my past instructors put it, "You'll write more. You'll write more crap. Lots more crap. But, every now and then you'll write something with potential or that is just plain good that you wouldn't have if you hadn't sat down to write. So, you'll also write more good stuff too. But only if you write more crap."

I may be paraphrasing a bit, but that's essentially what she said.

Today is one of those days where writing more, even crap, feels a little challenging.

I'm finishing my second day of mandated rest from the doctors; Well, I'm cheating a little. I took my son to daycare and am watching the neighbors' pets, and found grading essays in bed uncomfortable so have been sitting at the dining room table (after a long nap from the morning events) and I'm finding it all rather exhausting all the same.

So I'm taking a break for poetry. But, still feeling tired, I figure it would be a good day to seek inspiration from form rather than content.

In other words, sometimes when I am stumped, I try my hand at a new poetic form or style. I try to stay within the rules and write about, usually, something random.

An extremely quick and nondiscriminatory Google search led me to this List of 50 Poetic Forms for Poets.   It also has some info or maybe ads about other poetry challenges or places to get published if anyone is interested.

I've tried haiku and lune before, so decided somewhat randomly to try the Nonet. It's only  9 lines, and I figure it is more challenging than it seems. The first line has 9 syllables and you lose one each line until the last line has only 1.

So, here it goes.

NPMC 2016 Poem 5:

"Coming to the End"

Waiting is always hardest at the
beginning, when events feel new,
but as the time eats away
at our expectations
and life interferes,
we lose focus,
and swiftly,
endings
near.

This was easier than I thought at first. I found the middle the trickiest. I think this says more about just waiting in general. Everything seems so far away, and then suddenly it is happening. However, I think it also captures how our perception of time always slips away as we age. Things come faster. Suddenly everything goes so quickly. I think it is rather fitting for a nonet, and not too terrible for my first try. Hooray for trying new things. :)