If you can’t be proud of yourself every now and then, what does that mean? Does it mean you’re living your life in a way that doesn’t connect with the real ‘you’? I suspect that is indeed what it means, for me, anyway. I can’t claim to know anyone else’s life, but I’m working hard at understanding my own.
So, that’s why I’m writing this blog post. It’s partly in response to a comment on my previous blog post, but it’s also something I wanted to write anyway. I’m proud to say that I’m doing well with my Month of Poetry challenge. Doing well doesn’t necessarily mean I’m producing a work of poetic art with every poem I write and post to the Month of Poetry website.
Doing well simply means that I have been able to write and post a new poem every single day of January 2012. On some days I’ve been able to write more than one poem, woo hoo! This is far more poems than I have previously been able to write.
The main reason I decided to undergo this challenge wasn’t so I would be creating a wonderful poem every day, even though I’m happy with some of the poems I’ve written. The main reason I began this challenge was to prove to myself that I was capable of meeting the challenge of writing something every single day. If I am to meet my next challenge, I needed to be able to do this extended writing.
I’ll wait and see whether I can stick it out for the rest of January. Judging by how I’m going so far, it should continue to go well. Anyway, if you’re interested in reading more about this Month of Writing challenge, I’ve posted some of the poems I’ve written this month on my Poetry Blog here, feel free to have a look, read and comment!
On the Poetic Pause blog, there are details of a current poetry competition too, read about it all, and if you live in Australia, why not enter the competition? It won’t cost much, and the prizes are great!
Gardendog's Blog 
Well done Carolyn. Good to be proud of yourself. We should all do it more often. Also thanks for challenging me to do the Month of Poetry thing. I’ve been good with it until yesterday, which I missed out on due to extenuating circumstance, but intend to make up for it today with 2 poems. The key, I think, is to be easy on yourself, not to expect a masterpiece every day. Just the action of writing each day is worthwhile. I heard Geoffrey Lehmann on ABC last week, saying that when he was younger, he used to write copiously. Now he aims to write 2 poems per year! Quality not quantity. I suspect that he still writes copiously, but only ‘perfects’ and releases a small number of them.
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Thanks Mike, I agree with you on what Geoffrey Lehmann said. Or it may be he does lot’s of poetry making in his head, the pre-thinking one does sometimes.
I feel like some of my poems this month have been good, but some of them have been OK, and perhaps good enough to read at the Prince Albert Hotel at the end of the month.
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Good on you Carolyn! It’s a great feeling to challenge yourself in a way that’s meaningful and exciting. I’m not writing a poem every day but I am writing a post every day on my blog, and that’s something I thought I wouldn’t be able to do at first. It’s certainly making me tighten up my writing and speed up my editing – good skills to have going back into full time study! I’m glad you’re feeling proud of yourself, that feeling is a good basis for more inspiration and motivation. 🙂
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Thanks Sarah, good luck with your busy study challenge this year! I’ve been blogging more regularly too, so that’s a bonus I hadn’t really thought much about before the Month of Poetry started. My next challenge though, that’s going to be harder work, I feel.
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Thanks Carolyn! Foggy moment – should I know what your next challenge is planned to be?
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My next challenge is not completely out in the open yet, I’m considering some grant funding options, so can’t get too carried away quite yet.
Once that’s done, well, that’ll be different.
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Ahh, how exciting! Good luck with it 🙂
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Thanks Sarah, I’m thrilled to have another challenge coming along once my Month of Poetry (January) is over. Challenges are good, they help a person grow into the person they want/need to be, that’s what I think.
And you’ve certainly given yourself a challenge with your study, to go with your Arts. Good on you, and good on me too!
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