Introducing Write Without Pay's First Exercise

I wrote poetry before I wrote anything else, and that's what I spent the vast majority of my time in college working on--both in my free time and in workshops. I really love poetry. I really loved writing poetry. But much like the rest of my writing, I just stopped.

My friend Jessy keeps encouraging me to go back to poetry. Her points are valid: I care about it; I was once good at it. But most importantly, she's right that it's writing. It's another way to keep writing.

Being the good friend I am, I listened to her. I recently returned to a wonderful community of highly critical poets (www.everypoet.org/pffa). I spent a lot of time there years ago. They welcomed me back with a challenge: Join the Seven/Seven adventure. The idea is to write seven poems in seven days. Egad! It can take me two or three weeks just to eke out a rough draft of a poem; the twenty-three revisions it then goes through adds several more months or years to the process.

I don't believe poetry can be rushed. I don't believe it can be churned out. However--forcing yourself to finish a poem in a set timeframe creates a point of departure. It exercises those ragged muscles called wordplay, sonics, metaphors, and so on. ATTENTION: These are not polished poems. DO NOT JUDGE ME, YOU JERKS!!

The challenge starts today and runs through Saturday. I bring you 7 in 7.