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Thursday, April 19, 2012

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.


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