National Poetry Month Challenge

Are you up to Lunchlines' National Poetry Month Challenge?

All you have to do is write a poem a day in April.

No one's going to check on you, grade your work, or force you to write every day.

The point is not to craft beautiful poems daily, it's to discover what it takes for you to sits and writes. Every. Day. The drafts might be mush, empty twaddle, or just plain awful. And that's fine.

The main thing is to make yourself sit and write.

It could be the same time every day. It might have to wait until 11:53 pm. The poems could all be about what you see outside the same window or about the paperclip on your desk. Although writing 30 poems about a paperclip would be tough, even for a Rumi or Basho.

At the end of the month you get bragging rights and 30 -- yes, 30 -- brandy-new poems. Or however many you end up writing during April. When was the last time you produced, say, 15 new poems in a month?

Ready? Let's begin!




The Academy of American Poets' National Poetry Month page: http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41

March 16th assignment -- Curling

Curling, over-simplified

When curlers sweep or slide or burn
I wonder what they feel?
Despite their visage oh-so-stern
Perhaps it’s boules for which they yearn
Those plucky lads and lassies learn
That stones are hard to peel!

Maggie Creshkoff 3/16/2010

March 2nd assignment

What’s in the bag?

What’s in the bag?

What’s hidden deep

below most thoughts

before we sleep?

What’s in the bag?

What do we hide

from others and

ourselves? Inside

most hearts are wishes

better kept

away from others.

Those adept

at seeing only

sunny things

and hearing just

the bird that sings

are welcome to

their paper bags.

3-2-2010

Maggie Creshkoff

Lunchlines!