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

New York, New York!

There is a particular prompt which caught my eye because it involves including certain 'elements' in one's poetry. The prompt is to write a New York School poem. This type of poem is named for a group of poets who lived in New York during the 1950s and 1960s. Among these poets are Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch.

Many poems of this style are conversational in tone, refer to friends and places in and around New York, display humour, include pop culture, and present a sense of the importance of art its many forms.

We are prompted to follow the 'recipe' for a good New York School poem, found here: http://jacket2.org/commentary/recipe-writing-new-york-school-poem. We may include as many or as few of the listed elements as we wish.

Below is my poem, dedicated to my friends Nicki and Ian who live in Hollywood and Washington DC, respectively.

Until we meet again

We will meet again, my friends,

Nicki Bixler and Ian Reynolds,

On the Brooklyn Bridge,

Or on a bench in Central Park,

Or outside the The Dakota

Where John Lennon died,

Where we’ll will think of our days

In pubs in Scotland,

When we walked The Royal Mile;

Now we’ll walk the sunshiny Broadway

And eat hot dogs,

While dreaming of

How the heck we came to be here,

This ‘halfway point’,

And I’ll wave my farewells

Until we meet again.

            Andrea Vermaak