All through April I have been writing a poem a day. Friends and I took the National Poetry Month challenge and created a shared place to post each day. Most of what I have written will be mulch for other writing, some of the pieces I will revise, one or two flew out as poems from the very first. But finished pieces are much less the point then the shared commitment to write daily and create a quiet place in which to share. Quiet meaning safe, respectful, welcoming, opened, playful. Later there will be time for shaping, polishing, critiquing, working some of the pieces.
The climate of play has made these 25 days of a poem a day joyful, much like my pre-school classroom of 25 years ago. My class was filled with centers and experiential activities, in other words filled with opportunities for play; and sharing circle times and off key singing and discovery. We learned a lot of basics in my class, numbers and letters and scientific properties, kindness and curiosity. But we learned it by doing it, by being active participants in a welcoming environment.
This month has felt like that, some of the writing is rough and stumbling, some of it soars, but it happens everyday.