Guest blogger Marla Deschenes writes about her NaPoWriMo results six months later. Here’s a link to her blog from April 2012.
My poems that were written for NaPoWriMo mock me from a folder on my computer’s desktop where they have taken up residence since I wrote them all. I have had many suggestions from other writer friends concerning what to do with them from putting them all together into a poetry zine to adding them to a larger manuscript and trying to get a poetry book published. I am still thinking about what I would like to do (and have time to do!) with all these poems and partial poems sitting patiently waiting their turn in the spotlight. A few of them were sent to Amy Souza, the amazing organizer of SPARK, for use as prompt poems for artists participating in the SPARK phenomenon. But other than that, the poems have not done much since April.
However, I have done more poetry writing since April, of course, and I believe that stems from actually forcing myself to focus on my writing through the 30 poems for National Poetry Writing Month. Being disciplined enough to give my writing center stage every day led me to enough focus on my own work to produce my first zine in over 10 years. I am thankful for the opportunity to bring poetry and writing back to the forefront in my life, and I do believe that the 30 poems I wrote as part of NaPoWriMo did that for me.
Marla Deschenes is a poet, writer, zinester in hiding, wife, stepmom, doggie mom, feminist crochet artist living in her secret punk rock hideout in Enfield, Connecticut. She is currently working on a manuscript in hopes of having a chapbook published by someone other than herself.