Rules For A-Poem-A-Day

I have so far been successful in my goal of writing a poem a day ... but then, it's only been two days so ... I'm not going to throw any parties or anything.

I can see how this is going to be a challenge, in part because my critical side is already looking over those previous poems and proposing changes ... A LOT of changes. But that's not the point.

In my opening post I said I would write a poem a day, so here are some rules I am going to follow in this quest to force myself to be creative without overthinking it:

1. Spelling Errors/Utilitarian Edits

I will go back to change the improper spelling of a word in a poem I have published here. Otherwise, once it's published, it's done, warts and all.

For the "utilitarian edit" part: Changing font style or size for ease of readability seems like a good thing to do, so let me know in the comments if something is hard to read. 

Also, I just realized that - to keep me honest - I am either going to go back and put "Poem-A-Day" in parenthesis of the titles of the poems that count toward this project, or apply a "Poem-A-Day" label of some kind ... probably a label.

PS - If you didn't know, you can click on labels under the "Labels" tab to the right to get posts with only a specific label applied. It's a way for Blogs to have an index, and that's something I probably feel a little too enthusiastic about.

2. No Previously Written or Published Poems

You deserve poetry fresh-squeezed from my brain (it tastes better) AND copy-pasting some old thing I wrote years ago would defeat the purpose of this project. 

So, even if I post two poems in a day because I'm feeling inspired, that second poem doesn't count toward the next day. It's just an extra poem. Extra awful or maybe extra good poetry for you! 

Each day is a fresh start and a new poem with a midnight deadline for posting.

3. No Days Off

Even if it's just a few lines, I have to publish a new poem, one that I consider to be complete, by midnight each day. 

The only reason I would not post is if there is a serious technology error, but since Blogger is pretty awesome about even letting me access, compose and post from my phone, I doubt that will be an issue ... unless I drop my phone in a toilet, or throw it in the ocean ... you know, normal stuff. 

In any case, if a day did come that I didn't post a poem, be sure that soon after there would be many mea culpas and probably some incriminating photos that you could use to threaten me in the future ... or something. 

Well, I think that's it for now. 

Be good to each other.

~MS