Journal Splunking

Welcome to day #1 of the 2025 Poem a Day challenge. Your interest, your support, and your encouragement for the project are deeply appreciated. Please enjoy and, as always, happy writing!

Skim entries from old journals and diaries from a year or more ago jotting down interesting words, lines, phrases, sentences or images as you do so.

Don’t overthink — if something jumps out to you, it’s meant to be captured. Resist reading for context and meandering down memory lane.

The goal is to compile a page (or more) of fragments that still resonate emotionally but resist nostalgia and thwart typical associations or your own predictable writing patterns.

After letting your page of fragments “cool,” return a day or so late and write a poem from your compilation.

Poem for Inspiration:

“How I Arrived Here” by Karen Neuberg


Discover more from The Zingara Project

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Comments

5 responses to “Journal Splunking”

  1. kentomaro Avatar
    kentomaro

    I firmly believe in the “if something jumps out its meant to be captured” although I’m currently trying to figure out where to go with a poem/story about deep fried chicken gizzards.

    1. Lisa Hase-Jackson Avatar

      Well I for one want to know where you take that poem or story.

  2. […] April 1Journal Mining Prompt “How I Arrived Here” by Karen NeubergWednesday, April 2Protection […]

  3. A Senryu for National Poetry Monthr | Luanne Castle: Poetry and Other Words (and cats!) Avatar

    […] In honor of National Poetry Month and the re-opening of Zingara Poetry Review, they are providing prompts each day this month–and then if you like you can submit them in hopes of getting them published. Here’s the link for the first prompt, which I kind of love: ZINGARA PROMPT ONE […]

Always nice to connect.