April poem a day challenge

In honor of National Poetry Month, Robert Lee Brewer, editor at Writer’s Digest and creator of Poetic Asides, holds a poem a day challenge. I love to take the challenge because his prompts are always fun. He also provides his examples to help get us started. This month Robert has also created a platform building challenge through his blog: My Name Is Not Bob. I’m doing that one as well.

Here are a few of my April PAD poems with Robert’s prompts.

Day 5. Write a poem about something before your time. Maybe it’s a certain time in history. Or a type of music. Or a story that was shared by friends or family–before your time.

Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris

brought back a world before my time

and people that I would kill

to have known:

Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald

Porter, Baker,

Picasso, Man Ray, and Dali

all in the raucous 1920s.

And for a little more romantic and quiet

take he took us even further back

to the 1980s Belle Epoque

and the artistic worlds of

Toulouse-Lautrec, Gaugin, Degas.

If I can’t be as lucky as Gil

to go back in time,

Woody’s homage to the creativity,

beauty, and romance

of the City of Lights long past

will have to do.

Day 10. Today’s “Two-for-Tuesday” prompts are: 

1. Write a Forest poem or 
2. Write a Tree poem.

Three Palms (Tweet-length)

Outside my window I only see

their wide round trunks

still wet from last night’s rain

that seeped in streaks

into their vertical pores

Day 11. Pick a season (any season) and make it the title of your poem; then, write your poem. For instance, your poem might be titled “Winter” or “Spring” or “Rabbit Season” (if you have a sense of humor and like Looney Tunes cartoons).

What Spring?

In sunny southern California

we have no spring,

and no summer, fall, or winter

either for that matter.

Here the seasons are all mushed together

It’s never hot enough to break a sweat

or cold enough to see your breath

But somehow the flowers

know when to bloom

and the leaves

know when to fall.

Day 15. Use the following five words in your poem: slash, button, mask, strap, and balloon. Use them in any order.

In sharp sweeping strokes

he slashed the flimsy fabric

eliminating all traces

of straps and buttons.

He let the skirt flow free

to billow like a floating

balloon.