“Boynton Canyon End of Trail Sign, Sedona, Arizona by Alan English (https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanenglish/)
At long last, it is Day 30, the final day of the NaPoWriMo challenge. We began the month by writing an “ars poetica,” a poem about our philosophy of poetry, a type of poem which often begins poetry collections. Now let’s end with the sort of poem that might end a poetry collection. Today, write either an epilogue or a poetic biography.
An epilogue is defined as “a section or speech at the end of a book or play that serves as a comment on or a conclusion to what has happened.” For a great example, look at Robert Lowell’s “Epilogue,” which reflects on his own body of work, or read Ezra Pound’s “Epilogue,” which is a shorter poem along similar lines. In your epilogue poem, you might provide insight into events that have happened, reflect on meaning or look forward to the future.
A poetic biography (or bio poem) can be approached in a number of ways. One way would be to do a free writing exercise, where you write down details of your life. Then circle or highlight the most interesting words and phrases and use them as the backbone for your poem. Another approach might be to start from your existing biographical statement, which you use professionally or on social media sites, and add less common details, such as information about your dreams, your childhood, your fears, and perhaps your secrets. Whittle the poem down to just the most interesting tidbits about you.
Another approach would be to use the Bio Poem handout provided by Scholastic for young poets. Simply fill in the proper information.
Your name
Child of…
Who loves…
Who hates…
Who wants to go to…
Who wishes he/she could’ve met…
Who is scared of…
Who dreams of…
Who is determined to…
Who values…
Who is proud of…
Who graduated from…
Who lives…
Your name again
Whatever you choose to write, feel free to share your poem (or a link to your poem) in the comments. We hope you got something worthwhile out of our prompts for the NaPoWriMo challenge.
The NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) challenge is to write 30 poems in 30 days during the month of April. For more, visit the official site, NaPoWriMo.net.
About Alyce Wilson
