Writing Prompts for April's Poem-a-Day Challenge (by Nin Andrews)

It’s April, the cruelest month, and here in Virginia the rain has been falling so steadily, I am worried it will never dry out again. I feel soaked to the bone. Brain-foggy, too. Socked in. But, in spite of that, I’ve signed up for one of those write-a-poem-a-day groups. Now, I know a lot of you BAP readers are naturals at writing daily poems. Maybe you follow William Stafford’s advice of lowering your standards, and just keep writing no matter what. Or you’re a regular Emily Dickinson or Frank O'Hara--scribbling brilliant lines every other second. Or you’re like David Lehman who wrote a poem a day for two years (gulp) and then published his lovely book, The Daily Mirror.  Me? I don’t write a poem in a day, or even in a week. Ever.    

But, I have decided to give it a try. After all, it's what poets do in April, right? And I want to say, I'll be relying on all those poets who so graciously offered up video prompts for Lit Youngstown's Lit by the Imagination project, poets like Denise Duhamel, Stephanie Strickland, Peter Johnson, Jeff Friedman, Dante Di Stefano, and others. So many others. Every day there’s a new poet and a new prompt here. 

I want to post a few examples here, just to give a taste of what's ahead. Like this one by Nicole Santalucia:

And this one by Lauren K. Alleyne:

And this one by Leona Sevick:

 

Comments

[Helen McKinney]

Writing is my life. My life is not a text, a textile, a testimony, or a Nordic saga. My writing is no good, but my life is what happens when I put pen to paper. Therefore, writing is my life.