How to...

It's that time of year again! Global Poetry Writing Month (GloPoWriMo), otherwise known as National Poetry Writing Month, or NaPoWriMo.

I usually enjoy challenging myself with the prompts on the NaPoWriMo website. Today is no exception.

Our first prompt is to write a poem that provides 'the reader with instructions on how to do something'. The prompt was inspired by January Gill O'Neil's poem How to Make a Crab Cake.

Our prompt broadened to include a play on 'the notorious unreliability of instructional manuals,' or a poem 'that tells a reader how not to do something'. Additional inspiration was given in the form of John Ashbery's The Instruction Manual.

I would like to take inspiration from the latter: a poem on how not to do something, but perhaps in a tongue-in-cheek manner. The calibre of my poem is, however, nowhere nearly as sophisticated as that of the above mentioned poets!

How not to procrastinate

When you feel the notion to avoid

any work at all,

keep busy

Write or read or sing

Instead of washing dishes,

Or garden

Instead of sending that email

If you really have to,

fold washing 

while watching a movie,

but never exert yourself

Busy people

are not lazy;

they are active

in every way,

getting things done

at their own pace