NaPoWriMo2007

I'm thoroughly enjoying NaPoWriMo2007. I had visions of sitting around stuck for anything to write, but so far no problem. I've been getting my iPod to pick a random track as an inspiration/starting point, listening to it, taking a couple of hours off doing something else while, hopefully, a poem starts to form in my mind, then giving myself an hour to write it. It's all a bit rough-edged, but the poems can always be worked on later (there goes May, too).
I think the other initial fear is that whatever you write will be forced, artificial, somehow unfelt. But, quite apart from the fact that all poetry, however pure its core of genuine emotion, is ultimately artifice, the time limit and the structure of the challenge help make your brain start to connect all sorts of disparate things that might otherwise have remained filed separately in your head and notebooks. And, when it comes down to it, finding and making connections between disparate things is another of the things poetry is about.
I have been fortunate so far in what the iPod has chosen - after Sunday's opener, yesterday's track was I Was Never Here, by Baby Bird (or was it Babybird?), and today it's given me a real old favourite, Starsign by Teenage Fanclub. I've got a couple of ideas taking shape...