Joanna Preston: Tasmanaut Poet
I wanted to call this NaPoWriMo 2025 – All go (but will we survive?), but apparently that sucks for SEO. Ahem. This is to confirm that yes, The Poetry Class will once again be running an NZ NaPoWriMo site for people who want to torment themselves gradually devolve into lunacy challenge themselves poetically and join …
You’ve made it – all the way through April. Whether you’ve managed to write a poem every day this month, or tried to, or just thought about it, well done. Today, you will be writing a cento – a poem made up entirely of lines borrowed from other poems. And not just any cento – to …
Continue reading "NaPoWriMo Quarantine Edition – Exercise 30"
Today’s exercise is in response to a fascinating poet who was born on this day in 1863, and died on this day exactly seventy years later, in 1933 – the Greek poet, Constantine Cavafy. The poem I know best of his is one that feels worryingly appropriate in the nouveau-apocalyptic world we currently find ourselves …
Continue reading "NaPoWriMo Quarantine Edition – Exercise 29"
Welcome to day 28 – Proper Sonnet Day! For today, I want you to write a sonnet about realising that you were in love. It doesn’t have to be romantic love – a child? A favourite teacher? Your most beloved favour of icecream? Whatever. The crucial thing is that your poem should start with you …
Continue reading "NaPoWriMo Quarantine Edition – Exercise 28"
And yet again, it’s ekphrastic time! Hooray! Today’s image is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and their wonderful online collection. I’m a little obsessed at the moment with their 15th Century Netherlandish genre paintings – there’s just something about them that really grabs me. Hopefully you will also feel the attraction. I’ve given you …
Continue reading "NaPoWriMo Quarantine Edition – Exercise 27"
A Dark Feathered Art 