Each day the folks at NaPoWriMo are offering a prompt, and I'll start there and see what happens. I'm using my daily drafts to work on a middle grade book with the working title of TREEOGRAPHY, so there will be a lot of tree drafts this month.
APR 3
In his poem, “Treasure Hunt,” Prabodh Parikh brings us a refreshingly different view of what being a poet is like – that is, if you grew up on the cultural notion of poets being wan and ethereal, or ill and doomed. Parikh’s boisterous pirate of a poet might be an “unreliable” character, but seems like he’d be the life of any party, and quite satisfied with his existence. Today, we challenge you to write a poem in which a profession or vocation is described differently than it typically is considered to be. Perhaps your poem will feature a very relaxed brain surgeon, or a farmer that hates vegetables. Or maybe you have a poetical alter-ego of your own, who flies a non-wan, treasure-hunting flag with pride.
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People think I’m just a kid tooling around on my bike on my way to the pool
or the library. They have trouble imagining the truth: I am not playing, I’m
working. This is my calling, my profession. Visiting each tree, observing, noting,
drawing, composing watching through the seasons, learning some botany. I’m
inexperienced but I’m serious.
draft ©HM 2026
“HALF OF THEM DON’T EVEN HAVE A PROFESSION,” Harriet, who considers espionage her calling, writes of her sixth-grade cohort. When her mother accuses her of “playing” with her notebook, Harriet snaps, “Who says I’m playing? I’m WORKING!” Mrs. Welsch tries to clarify that schoolwork, not spying, is Harriet’s work.
https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-tragic-misfit-behind-harriet-the-spy
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