DAY 30 – FREE DAY (AND FAREWELL)

NaPoWriMo Day 30
For Read Write Poem

Today is the last day of (Inter)National Poetry Month and the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge. The prompt today is a free day — you are free to use any prompt you have not yet written to from those provided this month, or you can write, and share, whatever you like today.
Congratulations to everyone who took part in the challenge! For those of you who wrote a poem every day this month, tomorrow we will post instructions for submitting work for the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge anthology.
Remember that the anthology is the culmination of the work done here at Read Write Poem. It will be posted on this site and on issue.com toward the end of May. Other than the anthology, as of May 1, the Read Write Poem site will no longer be live. The site’s main content will remain up as an archive, while all social elements (i.e., profiles, wire posts, private messages, groups, forum posts) will be removed May 1. Please make sure you have retrieved any information you want to save.
We also want to announce that Deb Scott — who served on Read Write Poem’s administrative team — and Carolee Sherwood and Jill Crammond Wickham — who were part of the site’s creative team — have started a new poetry community. The three will share poetry prompts and other poetry-related content at Big Tent Poetry. Their writing lineup is comprised of many fine poets, including several contributors to Read Write Poem. We hope you will check that site out and see what’s going on under the big tent.
Thank you all for taking part in Read Write Poem, and for taking the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge this year. Read Write Poem was intended to help poets share work with one another and learn more about poetry. We hope you will continue on that path. Or, in short, we hope you will all poem on — wherever poetry takes you.

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Farewell, and thanks for having me.

For today, a piece about where I live.

Somewhere far away?

Sometime in the future?

Check out:

PLANET ISAN

Star date, Thirty Maesayon
Twenty Five Fifty point Three
Entering Phrutsapharkhom
Ninth phase, Rama Dynasty

Atmospheric properties
Hot, humid, but breathable
Forty Celsius Degrees
Survival; conceivable

Welcome to North East Thailand
Amazing Land of the Smile
Stick around for a while and
Discover the Isan Style

Sabai dee? Wow Lao dai bor?
How are you? Do you speak Lao?
Chao si pai sai? Eeyang kor?
Where are you going? What now?

Het nar, kin khao, fang Morlam
Wan yut; welar muan lai der
Work rice, eat food, hear Morlam
Holidays; time for laughter

Life on Isan; laid back, slow
Conducted on your own terms
Recommended place to go
My experience confirms


Translation notes:

Maesayon = April

Twenty Five Fifty point Three
=2553 by the Buddhist calendar = 2010

Phrutsapharkhom = May

Ninth phase, Rama Dynasty = The King of Thailand
Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama IX

Isan = Name given to North Eastern Thailand

Sabai dee? = Lao for ‘Sawasdee khrap, sabai dee mai?’
= Thai for ‘Hello, how are you?’
(Strictly) only used in Laos,
but the Laos dialect is widely spoken in Isan

Wow Lao dai bor? = Lao for ‘Phut Lao (Isan-Thai) dai mai?’
= Thai for ‘Do you speak Lao (Isan-Thai)?’

Chao si pai sai = Lao for ‘Kuhn cha pai nai?’
= Thai for ‘Where are you going?’

Eeyang kor? = Lao for 'Arai na khrap?'
= Thai for ‘What did you say?’

Morlam = Traditional Isan Folk Music