It’s almost that time of year again*.
This February sees the return of Post-It Note Poetry (PINP) for the 6th year. Yes, this will be the sixth time I will have dedicated myself to writing very small pieces of poetry (of dubious quality) on post-it notes, or created poems of an equivalent size in honour of the original dare I had with Adam Byatt – to commit to writing a month of bad poetry on post-it notes. From little things big things grow.
I am co-hosting this year with the poetry powerhouse that is Sean Wright (who, if you read the press release, credits the very first year of PINP with inspiring him to get serious about writing poetry and serious he’s been since then as he’s just released his first chapbook of poetry Magpie Tales.)
Across the years I’ve done a bunch of different things, but for the last two years I’ve dedicated PINP to cut-up poetry. This year I am building on that – combining the analogue cut0up process with digital poetry using fractal images as the backdrop. We’ll see how well the idea transposes into the reality of executing and producing it for an entire month. Assuming I do have a second spare cut-up copy, I’m planning to use Calvino’s Invisible Cities as my base text.
PLAYING ALONG AT HOME
For those of you who’d like to play along at home (at work, on the bus or in any of those in between places perfect for scribbling poetic words on small squares of sticky paper) the ‘rules’ are simple:
- Write/build/create a poem every day of February.
- The poem must fit on a post-it note (or be an equivalent sized poem — ie. no more than 8 lines – on a larger backing).
- Poem must adhere to the original light-hearted spirit of permission to write badly – in which poems can tackle serious content, but internal editors/critic all get a break over February.
- Post poems to social media with the hashtag #pinp18.
- Follow the hashtag and enjoy what others are creating.
You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram – or Sean on Twitter and newly on Instagram. Follow the poetic shenanigans across social media on #pinp18. For the full run down see the press release below.
I can’t wait to see what everyone creates over February.
* Actually cutting it fine this year after a tech mishap ‘lost’ the draft of the press release.
Pursuing Parallels 