April is officially National Poetry Month, which means I can geek out on poetry with some good company. While every month is poetry month to me, it is really exciting to see a large community of poets come together to encourage the writing and reading of poetry.
Poets approach this event in a number of different ways. Some write a poem a day, while others interact on social media. Educators emphasize poetry in their classrooms and writers promote their work at National Poetry Month events. No matter the activity, April is all about ensuring poetry continues to prosper as an art form.
I’m celebrating National Poetry Month by participating in two poetry challenges:
2015 April Poem A Day (PAD) Challenge on Poetic Asides (via Writer’s Digest)
This challenge is also a competition. Each day a prompt is posted and poets are invited to post their poems in the comments. A judge then selects one poem, which will be published in an anthology at the end of the competition. I participated in this challenge last year and really enjoyed the process. The community is so encouraging and inspiring.
My goal for this challenge is to continue my practice of haiku. I’m focusing on contemporary haiku which breaks the 5-7-5 syllable rule. The simplicity of contemporary haiku is very appealing to me, so I’m looking forward to experimenting with line and syllable counts.
NaHaiWriMo’s April 2015 Daily Writing Prompts
NaHaiWriMo (National Haiku Writing Month) is officially in February, but the organization offers daily prompts for every month. I had so much fun in February, I continued through March. The thought of missing a day was so sad, I decided to keep going through April.
My goal for this challenge is the same as the April PAD challenge, but I’m leaving the door open for the traditional 5-7-5 haiku and senryu. Seeing as there is no requirement to post, my journal will be full of little experiments.
Whether you are a writer or a reader, I hope you join the fun and celebrate National Poetry Month!
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c.b.w. 2015
C.B. Wentworth 
Yay!! It’s a great month to be inspired! It’s been tricky finding people to return comments, for me any way, with the ‘newer’ ‘older’ comments feature so I really look forward to seeing what you’ve offered over there – over here! So glad you’re playing again! I’m doing two this year as well and I wonder…do you do the facebook thing? There’s a page that a handful of us (20+) at the Poetic Asides site started a few years ago and if you’re interested…it’s a nice way to be in closer community with the core who’s been posting for @ the last six -seven years. Just thought I’d mention it…it’s a closed group but we add people who’re interested.
I hope you have a great week. 🙂
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I’ve been trying to find your poems, but its tough to navigate through almost a thousand comments a day!
I’m on Facebook and would love to join the group’s page. How do I find it?
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It is tough…the tool that Robert mentioned on day four helps a little once you get the hang of it…I had some issues with names…where to find the present day me…I have a few variations of my name since 2009…just combos of first and last and first only…any way…to find the PAD site…I just sent you a message and also left a note for the hostess. 🙂
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Yay! I’ll keep an eye out for the invitation. 🙂 Thanks!
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For National Poetry Month, poet Kelli Russell Agodon is actually hosting a big poetry book giveaway and there are a lot of poets participating! Here’s the final list:
http://ofkells.blogspot.com/2015/04/want-some-free-poetry-books-these-poets.html
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Oooo, I’ll be sure to check it out! I think I saw this on your blog, too. 🙂
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Hope you’re enjoying your challenges!
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So far it’s been really fun! 🙂
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Can’t wait to see where you go with these challenges.
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The process has already yielded some interesting results. It’ll be fun to compare where I started to where I end up.
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