We Played Terribly

By @RWhiteAuthor Day 5 of NaPoWriMo prompt is inspired by musical notation, and particularly those little italicized –and often Italian – instructions you’ll find over the staves in sheet music, like con allegro or andante. First, pick a notation from the first column below. Then, pick …

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“The Painting by the Window”

By @RWhiteAuthor Today’s (optional) prompt. In her poem, “Living with a Painting,” Denise Levertov describes just that. And well, that’s a pretty universal experience, isn’t it? It’s the rare human structure – be it a bedroom, kitchen, dentist’s office, or classroom – that doesn’t have art …

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Why I Am Not a Painter

By @RWhiteAuthor Day 3 Prompt: The American poet Frank O’Hara was an art critic and friend to numerous painters and poets In New York City in the 1950s and 60s. His poems feature a breezy, funny, conversational style. His poem “Why I Am Not a Painter” is …

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NaPoWriMo Day 2: From Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Drawn from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, this blackout poem explores the philosophy of self-overcoming. Nietzsche famously wrote, “One must have chaos within to give birth to a dancing star.” This piece embraces that tension—how darkness, struggle, and the unknown shape transformation. The erasure leaves behind fragments of existential battle and ascent, mirroring the journey of one who dares to evolve beyond their former self.

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