In dreams, another poem’s formed in a dark
and silent room for an anonymous anthology.
Poems map the seasons, track winter’s raging
floods and untarnished summer skies. Stanzas
step like dancers across page or screen but
the audience is voiceless. In the morning,
while out walking, seeking inspiration, I find
a stubby piece of chalk on the empty road,
consider hopscotch, but there’s no pavement,
just grass verges. I head for a wall adorned
with spray-painted tags: colourful temptation
and unexpected poetic motivation.
My chalky poem won’t last long in spring rain,
but I can go back tomorrow and try again.
Kim M. Russell, 26 April 2026
On Day 26 of NaPoWriMo we are exploring poetry in ars poetica or ‘the art of poetry’, “a tradition going all the way back to Horace for poets to write poems that lay out – whether explicitly or obliquely – some statement about why the poet writes, or what they think poetry is.” Maureen has given us a couple of examples.
Today, we are writing ars poetica, giving the reader some insight into what keeps us writing poetry or what we think poetry should do. I’ve written a few ars poetica and chose a ghazal from 2018 and another poem from 2020 to rework.
writing in north norfolk 