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Last Day of NaPoWriMo

Hello Poeetteers,

I haven't been officially participating in NaPoWriMo but I'm loving today's prompt:

I’d like you to try an odd little exercise that I have had good results with. Today, I challenge you to write a poem backwards. Start with the last line and work your way up the page to the beginning. Another way to go about this might be to take a poem you’ve already written, and flip the order of the lines and from there, edit it so the poem now works with its new order. This will probably feel a bit strange (and really, it is a bit strange), but it just may help you see the formal “opening” and “closing” strategies of your poems in a new way!

Here is a poem I wrote the other day:

It makes me crazy
to know
I think of you
yet it also keeps me calm
I won't deny my thoughts of you
but I also won't deny my beliefs
the faith I follow.

Here it is flipped:

The faith I follow
I won't deny my beliefs
but I also won't deny my thoughts of you
it keeps me calm
to think of you
but know
it also makes me crazy.

Love, Fida
Check out my book, A to Z Poetry.
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Comments

Denise D. Young said…
I really like this:

"It keeps me calm
to think of you
but know
it also makes me crazy"

There's something beautiful and true in those words. :)
April 30, 2015 at 9:15 PM
Fida Islaih said…
Thank you very much!
May 1, 2015 at 9:22 AM
Unknown said…
I've never heard of NaPoWriMo but I used to write a lot of poetry and think it sounds really cool! I love your backwards poem, it's really good. Writing backwards would be a great exercise to loosen up the creative juices!
May 4, 2015 at 7:20 PM
Fida Islaih said…
It is a cool exercise and I hope I get to practice with it. That's awesome that you used to write poetry! I'm glad you enjoyed the piece, thank you!
May 4, 2015 at 8:02 PM
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