Twitter Poetry Week 1

Just before the New Year, I wrote of my ‘inspiration‘ to write one poem in a single Tweet for every day of 2021. As I began my challenge, I realised that writing micro-poetry is not something which comes naturally to me. I am used to writing poetry which flows over several stanzas. I like playing with metre and rhyme, and you just can’t do this so easily in 280 characters. But, as my online yoga instructor would say: ‘growth comes at the end of your comfort zone.’ So I’m going to publish a round up of my micro-poetry Tweets once per week so I can track my growth (if any) over the year. Here goes…

Day 1: Janus #haiku

Two-faced Janus turns
towards the warmth of Springtime
Winter scene behind

Day 2: Apoc-eclipsed (short version)

I hope that 2020 won’t become
Apoc-eclipsed
when catastrophic climate change takes hold:
we’ve placed our lives on hold, still not enough
to save us from our epidemic greed
let’s pause, take stock, consider how
we might avoid
the worst of this.

Day 3: #Tanka for January Rain

January rain
falls as sleet, fleet as all the
memories which fade
softer than silent snowmelt
scent of winter in my heart.

Day 4: New beginnings #haiku

birth of a new life
marks an event horizon
watershed as tears

Day 5: Snowball

Do you think a critical mass of poetry could
snowball and roll
all around the world
returning us to our humanity?
Or is this just
pathetic fallacy?

Day 6: Snow

Snow is so much gentler on the heart than rain
Falling on all the rooftops of the world
general all over Ireland and
beyond it seems
my heart’s on ice beneath the snowdrift
and will have to wait the snowy season out
to heal.

Day 7: Infamy

Infamy infects
spreads like a metastatic
tumour, photon-fast
feedback loops of tyranny
betray our splintered selves.

Lessons learned so far

As regular readers might be aware, I adapted some of these micro-poems into longer form poetry, so if nothing else they can serve as a springboard for my creative endeavours. What has been absolutely wonderful is that other talented poets from this community are taking part and producing breathtaking poetry. If we continue as planned, I should have more than enough material to put together an anthology by the end of the year (with the authors’ prior consent, of course!) If you are on Twitter and would like to join in the challenge, simply use the hashtags #APoemADay and #poetryparty, tagging me @experimentsinfc. There is absolutely no obligation to take part every day, just whenever the muse moves you!

I apologise for the lack of a Postcard from Slovenia this week. We simply haven’t travelled much because of the lockdown. As soon as I have something new to show you I will most certainly post some more.

Best wishes,
Ingrid