April is National Poetry Month, and this year I decided to do the 30/30 challenge, which means you write a poem every single day of the month. I found prompts for every day, and these are the first 15 poems!
Day 1: "Before I can embrace freedom, I should be aware of what duties I have." ~Vince Lombardi
Once I saw the sky in its brightest blue,
And I cried,
For what an awful hue
Because I longed to be free,
but forgot the key
and the blue has returned to catch me.
Before I go,
There are things I must know
Whether I want to or not,
Which you seem to have forgot
I will reach for the sky – yes, that awful blot
Oh yes, if I tried,
The sky would not hide
Its awful hue,
Its sickly blue
Would keep me on course
Keep me true.
Day 2: Write a Haiku
Keeping the colors
Keeping the trees at their height
Nothing is lost then.
Day 3: Use Humor!
There once was a man named Jack
Who lived in a house all of black.
He liked it that way,
Watching the dead bushes sway,
When one day he heard a small “thwack”.
He jumped when he’d heard it once more,
And, panicking, rushed out the door,
To see his window, now with a small crack.
He couldn’t believe it,
Simply could not conceive it,
That his black had been shattered like that,
Till he turned to see who was the culprit.
And there stood a girl,
Hair twisted and curled,
Who smiled, and, to his alarm,
Said,
“Oh, my dear, dear Jack,
With a house all of black,
I can see that your quite in a blunder.
But I think you’ll agree,
As soon as you see,
My reason for breaking your silence.
“As I looked on your house,
All covered in black,
I simply had to do something about it.
Now my job is done well,
Actually gone quite swell.
“Since I see that your face is all white,
Then I’ve done what I set out to do-
And I’ve finally let in some light.”
Day 4: Write an acrostic poem
I love you
My heart is yours
Life is better with you in it
You complete me
I will always be faithful
Now my life has meaning
God has blessed me with you
Day 5: #choosetoinclude
You don’t know what’s going on behind these eyes
My heart screams one thing
My head another
Maybe if you stopped to notice
For even a second
If you got out of your own head,
If your eyes left the clouds
You would see the storm brewing
In my soul.
Day 6: Someone you admire
Like the sun, you shine
Like the moon, you glow
Like the stars, even from far away
You twinkle.
The cosmos cannot hold all of your light
You rise above all, glimmering without aid
No cold wind can extinguish your candle
Your eternal light will never go out
Day 7: “And I still haven’t found what I’m looking for…” – U2
I’m blind.
The world is a fog,
Covering me,
engulfing me in its confusion.
Once, long ago,
There was a lift,
A temporary change in weather.
I could see the vivid colors
The day and night were different.
But slowly the fog seeped in again
Where it came from, I know not
But I didn’t realize it was there
Until it was everywhere,
Inescapable
I’ll stay in this fog
Until I find the colors again
Day 8: Write a concrete poem
For this poem, we had to write a poem into a picture of the thing we were writing about, and the lines of the picture are the words of the poem. I drew a flower, obviously.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
and here I am beholding this flower,
which may not look like much at first,
But upon further inspection,
You can see the intimate details:
The petals,
The center,
The leaves,
and even the stem,
And you know that you are truly beholding
Beauty.
Day 9: Falling Asleep
When the day ends,
And my head hits the pillow
That’s when my life begins.
I can be who I want to be,
Change myself
Live a different life, all in my dreams
I don’t have to be me,
But when I wake up,
I have to be.
The responsibilities,
The worries
The face-saving,
All of that goes away in my unconscious mind.
But lately,
I’ve enjoyed the sweet release of falling asleep so much,
Maybe a little too much
Now I don’t know which reality is my own.
Which is night?
Which is day?
Who am I?
Where am I going?
I know not.
I’ve lost it all.
In changing myself,
And being someone else,
I lost myself.
It seems obvious now,
But when you see the tips of the dreams
Start to dance behind your eyelids,
Your life can begin at night, too.
Day 10: Food & Drink
I could venture into the desert for 30 days
And the milk of your words would still disgust me.
I could staple my mouth shut
And the bread of your smile would still turn me away
I could starve myself, not eat for days on end,
And the sweet fruit of your eyes would still repulse me
I could go comatose from dehydration,
And the flowing waterfall of your hair that glistens when you walk
Would make me want to stay under.
Day 11: Know something weird, or know a weird fact? Write a poem about it.
The fun fact I used: Everyone has a unique tongue print, just like fingerprints.
Your tongue left its mark on my lips,
Your fingers left their mark on my face
Before you stole my heart.
But I can’t press charges, you see,
Because I deliberately washed away any evidence.
Day 12: Write an annoyance poem
Do you ever wonder where those small annoyances are now?
You want to search,
But can’t find it in you,
So you’re just left wondering,
Whatever happened to those small annoyances?
Is one of them a small bus driver?
A teacher?
A banker?
Do they have children? More little annoyances?
Do they have a quaint little house with a nice green lawn,
Neighbors close enough for a wave, but not close enough to engage in small talk?
Do they ever pick their kids up from soccer practice?
Do they ever wonder about you?
Their little annoyance?
Day 13: Write a cascade poem.
The way I feel about you,
Nothing can compare.
The way you make me feel,
And that’s just the start.
I can’t really describe it-
I guess it’s like an unscratchable itch-
The way I feel about you.
The way you twist my words,
And twist my stomach,
Nothing can compare.
I want to forgive you,
But then I remember,
The way you make me feel.
The thoughts in my head,
The things I want to do,
To say,
And that’s just the start.
Day 14: Write a poem that tells two truths and a lie
I’m so tired of this
I hate you
I love you
Day 15: 10 secrets
My love for you
What happened on October 20th
That I never cleaned my room
What you did to me
What I did to you
Where the key is kept
That when I smile it’s just a mask
That I lied about the events of that day
That I peed in the pool
My hatred for you
