DU Official NaPoWriMo Challenge

FOUNDERS: Ahavati & JohnnyBlaze
HOSTS: Team NaPo'25

As most are aware, former Team NaPo Director, Eerie, passed away last November. This challenge is dedicated to and in memory of her. The link to her memorial thread is below:  

https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/forum/speakeasy/read/12777/

This Challenge is ONLY for those who registered between March 01 - 31st in the Speakeasy. All other posts will be removed, including any comment, banter, and particularly drama. You may ask questions or comment in the 2025 NaPo Discussion thread located at the link below:

https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/forum/speakeasy/read/13023/

TEAM NAPO'25: Ahavati, cabcool, SummerRain75, wallyroo92, LunaGreyhawk, wafflenose, Fiftysevenhours, DaisyGrace, Mel44, Webmiss, JohnnyBlaze, Director Emeritus, Eerie, Director, In Memoriam

Welcome to the DUP Official Glo/NaPoWriMo 2025! Those who finish this challenge will receive honorable mentions on Facebook and Instagram along with a TROPHEEE! custom designed by Webmiss!

This competition is for NaPoWriMo registrants ONLY. All other posts will be removed.

THE RULES!

An accumulation of 3 Strikes will result in your Disqualification. You will receive 1 Strike for failing to correct certain Rule Violations in an entry within 24 hours of its posting. We will not warn you to correct anything. You are monitoring yourself. Pay attention to our Daily updates to know If you have any Strikes or were Disqualified.

Our advice? Partner up with others who can check your entries for Guideline violations and immediately notify you of such. If you follow these rules, you won't earn a single Strike.

Only one poem per day can only be posted from 12:01 AM and 11:59 PM in your time zone starting April 1st --- before or after will earn you 1 Strike. You will create 30 posts numbered #1 through #30 regardless of when and if any late postings occur.

Your entries must have its number on top corresponding to the date of its posting, then a title in bold text, and lastly the body of your poem. Example:

#1

Poem Title

Poem
body

After 24 hours of posting, if there is:
No number ( or the incorrect number ) = 1 Strike
No title in bold text ( or no title ) = 1 Strike
Number, title, & poem out of order = 1 Strike
Notes other than the "unique word count" ( which is optional ) or the copyright symbol ® posted after the poem = 1 Strike

Theoretically, you could earn more than 3 Strikes from one poorly executed Entry and be Disqualified.

Entries cannot be edited after 24 hours of posting. Forum Time Stamps tell us if and when you have edited. An edit occurring after 24 hours can result in a Disqualification.

• Entries Must Be Pasted Into The Forum Direct Linking is prohibited.

• Poetry, Not Prose Entries must be in the format of lines and stanzas, not sentences and paragraphs. How "poetic" your entry is IS A NON-ISSUE.

• No Erotica Allowed Simply do not attempt to post erotica and you will be safe! Do not use language prompting the reader to imagine a sexual encounter. Do not make references or allusions to human body parts with intent to sexually arouse the reader.

• Entries Must Be In English

• No Images or Videos can accompany your entries.

Double Posting When Late We encourage you to complete poems ahead of schedule in the event you are prevented from writing and posting by an unexpected event such as a personal crisis, power or Internet failure, etc.

Follow this protocol upon your return: post a maximum of 2 poems per date until you are caught up. At the very bottom of each late post, attach a brief explanation stating why you are posting late whatever reason it may be. Example:

#10

Poem Title

Poem
body

#11

Poem Title

Poem
body

*Posting late due to no internet.

• Strike if your late post(s) do not include an excuse.

50 Unique Word Rule

The body of each poem must contain a minimum of 50 "unique" words. You can repeat any word as many times as you wish, but it only counts as 1 unique word. You are allowed to make up your own words. Titles and quotes of other writers are not included in your unique word count. If you provide the number of unique words in your entry, please type it AFTER the poem is finished.

What counts as 1 unique word: Contractions | Ampersands | One letter words such as "a" or "I" | Numbers such as "4" | Hyphenated words such as "sugar-free" | Power words such as "Freedom"  

If you don't have a minimum of 50 unique words after 24 hours of posting, this will result in 1 Strike.

One Violation of this particular rule can result in you not receiving the Trophy.

Errors & Inconsistencies ( Typos, Grammar, Punctuation, etc ) This is not a competition to see who can write a technically accurate poem. You may submit more polished versions of your entries to your personal DUP portfolios or other comps at any time.

Multiple Accounts If you are actively posting at DUP with multiple accounts not publicly disclosed in ALL of your profiles + forum signatures per site guidelines, you will be notified AFTER the competition that you were Disqualified. We do not reward individuals who secretly use additional memberships at DUP to exploit others.

Using Previously Written Ideas For Poems You may convert any written idea into a poem for entry if you wrote it down digitally or old school in a notebook and did not perform any further work on it. In essence, you may use any poem you "started" and it is only during April 1st - 30th that you may "finish" said poems.

Off Topic & Drama Posts will be removed from the Registration / Discussion thread. Only poem entries are to be posted to the NaPo challenge thread and NaPo Prompt Comp thread.

Acceptable Entries & Writing Prompts We provide prompts available in the NaPo Prompt Comp competition likewise beginning on April 1st.

Otherwise, you do have complete freedom to write about anything you want! You will not be disqualified based on content or quality - with the exceptions of Erotica, which is not allowed, and Plagiarism; if we discover that you are swapping words in pre-existing poems or copying partial to entire poems, you will be notified AFTER the competition that you were Disqualified.

PLEASE use common sense. Your poetry, unpolished or otherwise, is a reflection of the overall talent being fostered by DUP. We would hate to see outside readers, potential members, or even publishers turned away by material meant to garner attention purely from shock value. Don't be a shock jock.

Final Award Check After the FINAL entry is submitted on April 30th, Team Napo'25 will double check entries to ensure viability. It only takes 1 ineligible entry to negate your acquisition of the trophy, so be certain your work adheres to the Rules!

A special THANK YOU! to all braving this challenge! Particularly to our Team members for donating their valuable time to assist us in making this the most SPECTACULAR NaPo ever!

Sincerely Good Writing to All,

Team NaPo‘25

1/30

To The Stars

Ventured far away from a firelight sight
A revelry not destined to be destiny
Firework finale upon traces of faces
Heartbeat night dark blood dark heart

Embarked into dark bark of dark art
Read papyrus purely through light of iris
Conceived resurrection machine into which I breathed
All of my belief as a soul conceived

So many sorrows lost yesterdays today transitory tomorrows
Written in renaissance inside of evanescence
My presence in shattered daylight vision incisions
Crucifixion in space without the senses within the true face

Conceived resurrection machine into which I breathed
Letter by letter laid into lattices lettered into matrices
Every former madness an empowered power and matrix
Vibrating harmonic beauties across odysseys of dark seas

Awakenings inside enfolded curvatures interred in spirals
Letter by letter rising upon a wave of relentlessness
Sword by side arms crossed eyes embossed in stars of afars
Creatures of different solar systems crowned in stars

I shall not die for I have found the light within
I have braved impressions of the grave somehow someway saved
Saved for expressed purpose of constructing this
Letter by letter revealed in spinning Cipher Wheels

Eyes of stars from afars creatures of different solar systems
Flesh concealed peeled revealed piece by piece
Complexion of confession spoken in tokens glittering golden
Shimmering tokens spinning the broken into stars

Like attracting like stars attracting stars
Heart and soul unraveling into astral traveling
Letter by letter spinning Cipher wheels the concealed revealed

Purely
in
awe of The Great Call into afars:

To The Stars

#1 of 30

The Clumsy Dance of Heartache

lonely sound
of a heart
unheard heartbeat
questions
bever asked
unanswered

love stumbles
before beauty
it's always clumsy
beautiful chaos
under brutal light
fireflies fly

longer nights ahead
till dawn peaks
will summer bloom
mirror cracks
while waiting
here alone

crying useless tears
little acid raindrops
burning cheeks
she's an illusion
just tauting
haunting me

unique words 55
total words 55

1/30

WELCOME

Welcome to April’s amplification
of spilling your guts on the written page
this is your chance at sanctification

Train up your mind with strong medication
tune into calmness and petulant rage
welcome to April’s amplification

And having signed up, a big obligation
determines your life the next thirty days —
this is your chance at sanctification

This is the route to cause a sensation
here you reveal your best turn of phrase
welcome to Ape-errr-ill’s amplification

Never mind Lent and its strange connotation
Why go without? Let NaPo be praised
this is your chance at sanctification

So Day-One is here with felicitation
to all of you brave ones who’ve entered the craze —
it’s welcome to April’s amplification
as poetry lives in renewed sanctification.

1/30

Cooking Schmooking

Cooking is nowhere near
my favorite thing to do.

Of all the things I hate in life
That is a chore that makes me blue

I know by this admission clearly
I’ll be upsetting those I hold dearly

Please refrain from chastising me harshly
When I confess I really loathe parsley

That is not my worst offense to tick
As I share I hate, abhor and despise garlic.

When’s dinner?

57 uw

1/30

Sepia Tone

I remember our love
in sepia tone
Rustic and raw pictures
of our beautiful memories
playing in my mind.
The rugged and worn off edges
of photos of our togetherness
...of moments timeless,
as if a continuum-
beginning from infinity
when stars blossomed into life;
a phantasmagoria of
smiles and tears
rainbows and rain,
ebbing and flowing
with the passage of time
like a dream within a dream
embedded in my soul...
Though you aren't here
your absence can't consume me
...this dream continues
and will do so for eternity
until I cross over and meet you

amongst the stars...

1/30

hush

The day was abuzz with life
birds chirping and the sun rising
My days have been sullen of late
and I long to participate in the praise of nature

the blue stretch on for miles
and my tulip tree smile at me
I love her very much
She is my centering place
in all of my yard, my focal point of meditation

She calms me when I feel anxious
as I stand underneath her
looking out at the winter wheat growing in the field
a hush always come over me
and I know peace

1 of 30


over clouded Roads



“Now I fold you down, my drunkard…”

you talk me down
 within a chemtrail plaid

        through coloured rain

cold-cock then dry me

Your  butterfly net  
      ~ into and out of a triplet of dead clouds
               


then
Sleep on my wrists

   from
bedtime to morning:

your intimate approval

and nod your head twice,
     your wet hair water-falling

We are greedy
      to wear those sheepskin thoughts

never really ours to bare.
Those tones, balusters to a hymn

of bodies
honouring a/the lie,





Like holding glowing silver-gelatin prints
 of   morning headaches,
an over-bitten gum-shield,
  Your mislaid clothes and my missing buttons /
 your teeth are too sharp.

#1


i l l u m i n e


glinting tinkly silvery pearls
with the hardened sacred
‘rudraksha’..  in a darkened
matte beaded alternating..

a simplistic rustic jewellery
of this a  ‘bhakti sanyasini’
hymning devoutional  love


to you my Shiva..


this inner earthen red
a terracota dotted base, this


rooted  ‘Kundalini’ Shakti  


rises in an awakening..
a hissing divine serpent
in search of the Spirited


You..


half stern, yet yielding
to a malleably flexing..
in her saffron-clad sacral
digging sensualities.. shines
her sultry svelte sculpt.. her
bodily arching curviness-
flowers and flows a riverine
Ganges ..  in a never-before
exploring zen of an
impassioned, a
creative artistry


unleashes her raging
fire- a pureform sun bird
she is in a self-metamorphosing
flight to her once dungeoned
core, now flutters a lightness
soul bird atop the peaking
Mount Everest ..


flaps incessantly hard
her iron clad migratory feathers
.. an arrhythmic racing heart
steadies in a silken airy, an
evergreen pace


this lightning heart
with a flaming lampistry..
that’s in traverse over
light years.. across
ageless spacetimes ..


meditates now
in an inner journey to the core
at levitational wavelengths
..a bluish ethereal wave grips
her in a clarifying mellifluous
harmony .. that she composes
in a divine extempore..
to your waiting ears..


as her smoky smudging
kohl eye magnets.. drown
in an oceanic deep drawing


…bejewelled


with a purplish lotus.. of
a perpetual Brownian motion..  the
third eye.. jumps a little planar high


in a smiling silence.. an
entwining encircle .. over atop
the supremely crowning chakra..


of Him the Shiva  




*180 unique words

1 of 30


upon reflection...forget genuflection


somebody please explain to me
what's this obsession with that social ladder
...blows my mind
how attractive people seem to find it
but they're all frantically trying to climb it
like it takes them somewhere special

honestly...they're not really even moving
just going through the motions
claiming status by osmosis
dropping names like grenades
hoping to shake things up

like I give a fuck...
I'm not exactly at the bottom of the chain
but I sure can see it clearly from here
it's full of textures & personality
& that greatly appeals to me
yeah, one helluva view

listen...

my circle is small for a reason
{there is no outer...only inner
layers taste too much of manipulation}
trust is no laughing matter
& every one within it...
...has earned that badge of honor

so I've got no time...
...nor interest...
...in the latest this...that...or they
real is all I'm interested in meeting
let the climbers have their uppity titles
& fancy brands

me...I'm good
I'm just fine...
...right where I am

1/30


Once Upon A Star

Once, you were a star in my eyes
For years I followed your light
But your light faded away into nothingness
I thought your sparkle has totally dimmed
That I won't be seeing your light again
That you have died along with that dream

But now you're here once more
And I can see you like before
But your light is no longer bright in my eyes
And I realized I was just blinded
By your artificial light
But I won't regret having followed you
For you were once a star in my dreamy eyes

1 of 30

Disturbance.

If we create all we feel,
All,
That's real.
If we form the space we fill,
Make this place,
Seem so ideal.
It's hard to find a home for hate,
When at times,
It's touch,
Lays so near concealed.
Slipped between conditions,
And,
Slipped between unspoken fear.
That,
Self perpetuated,
Disregulated,
Mission,
Those,
Notions,
Those,
Extremes.
Those,
Fine veiled mares,
Of nights and dreams.
Are all but masters,
Except,
For choice,
Except for,
Our acceptance.
In the presence,
Of their,
Disturbance.

#1/30

Journey to the Stars

We’re launching a journey to the stars:
a flight of imagination,
a pilgrimage of poetic memoirs,
a hullabaloo of creation.

No jet fuel, ego, or money required
to conquer the world’s gravity;
only thoughtful hearts and minds inspired
will gain us escape velocity.

We don’t carry weapons or millionaires
on this rocket from Underground –
just stories and words, rhythms and prayers,
until each of us is crowned.

We’re led by a loving, Eerie spark
on a path that’s uniquely ours:
to become the lights drowning out the dark
on our journey to the stars.

#1/30

strange thing about bright night

The moon is
sitting sadly today,
the stars are
going to meet
their beloved earth

The palaces
of the sand
have started falling,
the sea is adamant
on capturing the shore

The sun hanging
behind the leaves
is planning to surround
the light of the stars

The bumble bee
is weaving  thorny web
on the flowers
that are scenting
someone's hair

Old shadows
are shimmering
in a colorful umbrella,
the fluttering age
is going on a stranger's invitation

The glass vial is filled
with someone's fragrance,
a misty evening is resting
on the waves of a river...