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 20^th

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