Yesterday our internet was down and I was unable to post a full version of NaPoWriMo. So here we are a day behind. Proving that it is okay to fall behind. The 15th marked the HALFWAY point of NaPoWriMo, it seems to be disappearing swiftly this year.
As always, for the full version of the prompt, click on the day.
Our featured participant today is like mercury colliding, where the homophone/homonym/homograph prompt resulted in a rollicking adventure in doubled spellings, meanings and sounds.
Today’s video poetry resource is this tutorial on how to read a poem out loud – really, how to perform it, as if it were a monologue in a play.
Our prompt for today, takes its inspiration from the idea of a poem as a sort of tiny play, which can be performed dramatically. In the 1800s, there was quite a fad for monologue-style poems that lend themselves extremely well to dramatic interpretations Robert Browning’s jam. And Shakespeare’s plays are chock-a-block with them. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write your own dramatic monologue. Try to create a sort of specific voice or character that can act as the “speaker” of your poem, and that could be acted by someone reciting the poem.
NaPo Process Notes
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The example poem from yesterday’s prompt is wonderful. It must have been an exhausting write, it is a fairly exhausting (in a good way) read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Kat Myrman talks about how hard it was to write this poem. ‘Painful but worth it.’ And that is how a lot of NaPoWriMo poetry can feel as it is forced into existence or as we tackle techniques which are not familiar to us. It is the worth it bit we need to keep hold of! I had a little look around the blog.
Top 5 tips for performing poetry, presented by writer and speaker Renee M. LaTulippe. DOING POETRY RIGHT
Top 5 Tips for Poetry Performance
1. Score Your Poem
2. Find Your Pace
3. Use Good Diction
4. Use Natural Movement
5. Be Natural and Have Fun
Renée LaTulippe is a former English/theater/public speaking teacher. She is now a children’s writer who composes poems for her video blog, No Water River, where she also features videos of renowned children’s poets reading their own work.
The readings are still (overly) dramatic but some good tips to novice performers or poets who do not feel comfortable reading publicly.
The Dramatic monologue has been in the past few years a popular source of Spoken Word on the Midlands scene. Fuelled by University Creative Writing Courses focusing on such genres. I have only written them as part of workshop but am used to the dramatic form.
I had a look at the given examples, I listened to My Last Duchess – Robert Browning and watched the next video link Hamlet – To Be Or Not To Be soliloquy – Shakespeare.
Laurence Olivier’s wonderful 1948 film, with music by Sir William Walton.
Fully feasted on Dramatic monologues I am off to write one myself. I will post a snippet later.
On Writing
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I started by reading a few other examples of Dramatic monologues. I have linked them here.
The Poetry Foundation describe this form simply as; A poem in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, usually not the reader.
I wanted to write about Notre Dame. Last night our internet was down, but the news came from a text message from my family and I was able to get updates on my phone. It is tragic and sad, we are happy we got to see the Cathedral for ourselves, but the footage I have seen since, the streets of Paris filled, the bells of other churches ringing in lament, the president organising fundraising to repair, firefighters being injured. Historic monument, burning.
My next stage was to remind myself of some of the footage and news I read on a tiny screen and then, nothing for it but to get writing, one of the 100,000s of poems to be written about it I am sure.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47941794
There are 10 stanzas and the poem is simply called Notre Dame 2019. I presume this will remain significant and meaningful for decades/centuries to come. It is written from the point of view of a bystander.
We pledge soundless prayers to the skies above the smoke.
IMAGE inconscientecoletivo.net
awritersfountain 