Michelle Marie Jacquot makes a welcome return for today’s NaPoWriMo podcast.
This prompt is one all about finding the humour in life. In the harder times, in the happy, and in the ordinary. I would prompt you to think of a time that made you laugh or smile, simple as that. The last few years have been challenging, and I think finding joy and lightness anywhere we can is an essential part of being human, in good times, and especially in darker ones. In my opinion, it’s vital to getting through them. “Joy as an act of resistance” is something I think about often, almost as a modus operandi. It can be a relief to look back on what might have seemed like the end of the world at the time (and may well have been), and finding something to laugh about in hindsight— finding the brighter side to life when at all possible, even in small ways. We may not be able to solve all of life’s problems, but we can make some jokes out of them to help us get through them and onto the other side.
Your poem doesn’t have to be about anything recent, just something that will add some lightness and laughter to your day. Try the first thing that comes to mind. Perhaps even start free writing it as a story, as if you were telling it to a friend. From there, you can pick and choose certain words or phrases that pop out as a jumping off point to craft the poem from. Happy writing!
PARTY OF ONE
I had my birthday party
indoors this year
So did everyone else
in the entire world, I hear
Maybe I’m not as depressingly special as I thought
Maybe we’ve all been secretly eating cake
alone in the dark all along
Michelle Marie Jacquot
Michelle Marie Jacquot is a writer and performer from Los Angeles, California. Her debut poetry collection Death of a Good Girl was released in 2019, becoming a Barnes & Noble bestseller in the genre. Her latest pamphlet, DETERIORATE, critiques and contemplates the effects of the digital age on humanity, and is available worldwide. Her next collection is set to be published in the summer of 2022.
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Poetry Non-Stop 
a zombie apocalypse
and i just finished like so many time sheets
ive been sleeping since i was a baby im good at it
the bark is worse than the bite at this point
i even lost a finger to a fax machine
faux pas is spelled better than pronounced since autocorrect
for some of us its just a terrifying relief
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