2026 NaPM After Hours

[RiverNotch]

Write a poem for National Poetry Month based on the topic described....rather, write a poem set in, pertaining to, or inspired by the given region, whether its entirety or just some part of it, as this year's prompts are going to be unified by the theme "Around the World" like last year's prompts were unified by the theme "Esoterica". Each poem should appear as a separate reply to this thread. There are three levels of participation:

Bronze. Participated at least once.

Silver. Participated every day.

Gold. Participated every day, with all entries either being the same form (e.g., every one a sonnet) or being distinct forms (e.g., no two haiku).


Finally, today's region is the origin of all mankind, East Africa. Also feel free to discuss the prompts or highlight your favourite entries.

[dukealien]

The Rift


It is said the Olduvai Gorge was mankind’s
cradle, set within the Rift Valley slicing
East from West as sentience ruptures mankind
from the blest creatures

living generations without a need to
know what came before them or glimpse the future.
Now the curse evolves from mere memory to
having a record

laid down, no more need to dig bones, engage in
reconstruction, here are the facts recorded
as they happened.  There are opinions, yes, but
evidence pins us.

[RiverNotch]

Tithonus


The giant asked the god to be immortal
but not to be divine, neither to lie
nor sit nor stand nor even leap beyond

the limits of this flesh, for he knew well
Eos could offer one thing or another
but never both. To live as an idea

means vanishing in the instant that the mind
which spawned you passes into another room,
to live forever is to be the earth

on which all other lives proceed in courses
both more abrupt and worthier to take:
still, he could not conceive of any horror

greater than that of death, not even the body
withered so much that only the jaws, the throat,
the shoulders, the chest, and the diaphragm could move,

which is how both his offspring came to favor
risking their youth for senseless causes, Memnon
fighting to save a city he knew was doomed,

Alcides on the road to achieve his labors
by Emathion blocked, the noble line
that towering over all their Ethiopian
subjects governed as emperors cut short.

---

duke I think you also got gold? which is pretty awesome

were these prompts much harder than last time or have they been somehow easier? i definitely struggled most with Oceania, since i barely knew anything about the place. but it's damn rewarding to try writing something, for thirty days, that could feasibly be taken as one coherent whole. tempted to have the whole series workshopped as one thread, with the main goal of figuring out which ones need to be entirely reconceived xD

[wasellajam]

duke I think you also got gold? which is pretty awesome

were these prompts much harder than last time or have they been somehow easier? i definitely struggled most with Oceania, since i barely knew anything about the place. but it's damn rewarding to try writing something, for thirty days, that could feasibly be taken as one coherent whole. tempted to have the whole series workshopped as one thread, with the main goal of figuring out which ones need to be entirely reconceived xD

Congrats you guys, impressive. For me the prompts this year were harder because most didn't spark an idea on their own and for me, even researching to mine for an idea, it's uncomfortable to write about what I don't fully know. That's just me, much respect to both of you who stuck with this challenge.

What was your experience like to write in the same form daily?

[RiverNotch]

duke I think you also got gold? which is pretty awesome

were these prompts much harder than last time or have they been somehow easier? i definitely struggled most with Oceania, since i barely knew anything about the place. but it's damn rewarding to try writing something, for thirty days, that could feasibly be taken as one coherent whole. tempted to have the whole series workshopped as one thread, with the main goal of figuring out which ones need to be entirely reconceived xD

Congrats you guys, impressive. For me the prompts this year were harder because most didn't spark an idea on their own and for me, even researching to mine for an idea, it's uncomfortable to write about what I don't fully know. That's just me, much respect to both of you who stuck with this challenge.

What was your experience like to write in the same form daily?

I think it made some things easier, especially if I didn't really know what to write about---like, I could start with doggerel that isn't entirely senseless, due to the constraints of the rhythm, and have the entry evolve from there---but then some days I have the clearest idea that initially will not fit the form, or there was even one day where the form fit the idea too well, and I realized I needed to cut things down in order to finish within the day. But sticking with a form was maybe secondary to having to do some research over so many places xD I don't know if writing poetry is as associated with doing prior research as, say, writing historical fiction, but it's enlightening to fuse these modes, so to speak

The threads remain open, like they usually do, so it would be fun to see what your take would eventually be for some of the regions you missed

[Mark A Becker]

Hats off to duke, and notch, the sole survivors. I crashed out halfway through.

[dukealien]

(snip)

What was your experience like to write in the same form daily?

Compared to writing a different form each day, it was definitely easier writing in the same form every day - experience accumulates, little tricks like (in the case of sapphic stanzas) having a few good dactyls in mind the way you have a few good rhymes in mind with rhymed poetry, and working toward them.  If there were a distinction, I'd give all-different an extra kudo, a small pearl, size of a fly's eye, to go with the gold.  Or reduce all-same to electrum, my favorite precious metal   .

All-different required additional research to dig up thirty forms (some, to me, quite obscure) while the form I chose for all-same was relatively brief blank verse.  So research was limited to the assigned topic for a "hook" or two from which to hang it.  @RiverNotch chose a more involved form and unifying project (a mythos of giants).  Deserves extra credit as well as thanks for running the NAPM observance this year.

As a not disconnected aside, NAPM intersected with a real wealth of new piglets this year, to which I attribute the scarce (so far) responses.  Important to attend to the newbies, and the NAPM threads are always here if inspiration from one of the prompts scores a late hit.