DaySong 2024 on September 1

The DaySong is a poem written in a 24 hour period (or the 16 or so hours you’re awake during a 24 hour period). The DaySong was originally envisioned as an attempt to broaden the compositional range of the postcard poet, from the 12-14 lines that can fit onto a postcard to the many pages that can be written in a day–from spatial restriction to temporal restriction. This practice involves dedicating an entire day to writing with little to no interruption and as much solitude as possible. While this exercise can be done anytime in the year, we are planning this year’s Day Song for September 1, 2024 to close out the Poetry Postcard Fest. You are free to write about whatever you like, and poets often choose to prepare ahead of time by researching a topic or collecting other writing sources to serve as inspiration. When inspiration stalls, the postcard poet has 31 poems that could serve as inspiration for elaboration.

CPL’s founding director Paul Nelson has published multiple of his previous DaySong writings, including The Day Song of Casa del Colibrí and Day Song Miracle (Past 62). More information and inspiration for the Day Song exercise are available here: Inside the Day Song and Day Song as Vision Quest. The DaySong exercise handout that was prepared for September 1, 2024 is HERE. It was written for the workshop participants of the Life as Rehearsal for the Poem and Poetics as Cosmology workshops that will begin again in late September. Registration will open soon.

Happy writing!