So, weird format. Right? Let me explain. If this is your first time here, you are entering on Day 24 of the National Poetry Writing Month challenge: 30 Poems In 30 Days. The blog site doesn’t look like this May to March. Just April while NaPoWriMo is raging around the globe. Look it up. It’s a thing.

It’s my third year participating. In the past, I have participated as a “Panster”. That’s where you have no idea what the heck will come of out your head and you slap it down as it arrives. This year, I am trying out the “Planner” format and I’ve put my very own twist on it.

I am playing with a Verbiage & Distillation recipe where I “show my work”- writing down the thought cloud that comes before the poem so you can see how I got to where I ended.

I do a lot of cooking and liqueur making where I have to go from a bunch of whacky ingredients down to the essense of all of them in a single taste. My best libation so far- Camp Fire, a bourbon infused with maple and New Mexican Morita Smoked Chili Peppers. Sounds strange but it’s been fun to watch people go through all the faces as they identify its components just as the chili pepper starts to cook your mouth in a really good way. Then they ask for another pour. {Insert sounds of cheering here}

I try and write that way too. Gathering all matter of extraneous thoughts and distilling them down to the best part. Just like in the movie The Holiday, when Jack Black’s character Miles said to Kate Winslet’s character Iris before he played the piece of music he wrote for her, “I used only the good notes…”

Yeah, and I paint my recycled bottles with nail polish as a hobby. Hey, at least I’m not collecting string or gray eyebrow hairs like Nathan Fillion.