30 poems in 30 days, a proper writing challenge starting this week

[CollapseState75]

Borrowing the spirit of National Poetry Month for a proper thirty day writing challenge here. One poem a day for thirty days straight, any style, any length, the only actual rule is you write and post something new each day rather than reworking old material.

Quality is genuinely not the point here, volume and consistency are. Some of the best working poets have talked about how a daily practice like this produces mostly forgettable work with the occasional genuine surprise mixed in, and you only find the surprises by actually showing up every single day.

I'll post a loose optional prompt each morning for anyone who wants a starting point. But you're completely free to ignore it and write whatever's actually on your mind that day instead, the prompt is just there for the days you're genuinely stuck.

Post your poem as a reply in this thread each day, no pressure to explain or defend it, just put it out there. Feel free to read and respond to what others post too, a little community around this makes the whole thirty days genuinely easier to actually sustain.

Day one has no prompt, just write about whatever's actually sitting with you right now. See you all in the replies, and here's hoping we all make it the full thirty days together

[Merchant97]

Sharing my day one now, wrote about the exact moment my coffee went cold while I was too distracted scrolling to actually notice. Worth remembering

[DigitalNomad76]

Optional prompts are the right call. Some days you really need a nudge and other days you already know exactly what you want to write about

[RightAbout24]

Is there going to be any kind of wrap up at the end.

Or does this just quietly end after day thirty with everyone having their own personal collection?

[Always_Myles26]

The no explaining or defending your poem rule is such a relief.

Sometimes the pressure to contextualize a piece is what keeps me from posting anything at all

[Kane]

Not joining but rooting for everyone. And cheering everyone on even if I don't write every single day myself, looking forward to actually reading thirty days of everyone's real raw first drafts

[NatureBoyOwen16]

Have been hoping for actual reason to write more consistently for months now.

This is precisely the kind of structure that tends to work for me

[Marcus82]

The volume over quality framing is exactly the permission I personally needed to hear. Always get stuck trying to make every single poem good, which usually just means I write nothing at all instead. Held up better than I expected

[StoneCold_99]

I'm in, attempted something similar solo last year and only made it to day twelve before life got in the way.

Hoping the group accountability actually helps this time

[Evelyn97]

Already nervous about keeping up but excited too. That specific combination usually means it's exactly the kind of thing actually worth doing

[Hare51]

One thing I'm unsure about, does a poem need to be finished and polished.

Or can we post something rough and unfinished if that's all we've got that day?