Happy Easter!
Finally! April is here and with it all the Poem-A-Day games challenges. Time to smash down any mental
brick walls stumbling blocks you may have been running into. Today National/Global Poetry Month. starts – and with it the annual writing challenges “Poem-A-Day” aka PAD. Also Camp NaNoWriMo starts …
My PAD prompt is apropos … “start”.
You’ve Got To Start Somewhere! – Getting started is the hardest part of writing, so let’s get it out of the way. Either:
- Go to the Random Sentence Generator and click the button to generate a completely random new sentence. You might have to have a few goes before you get one that makes sense.
- Or choose a sentence that appeals to you from a nearby book. Don’t think too hard about it. It can be poetry or prose.
There – you have the first sentence of your new poem. Now lineate it in a way that adds meaning, and you have your basic line length. Finally, write the whole thing, then – take your poem over the top! – delete your first sentence.
Random Sentence Generator For Really Unique and Funny Sentences!
Other PAD challenges are …
- Robert Lee Brewer’s Apr PAD challenge (I’m playing in this one, too, this year. Again. Year 11, peeps!) On Twitter, use hashtag #AprPAD.
- The official NaPoWriMo Challenge (National Poetry Writing Month). AKA GloPoWriMo (Global Poetry Writing Month) as April’s PAD challenges have participants across the globe. They’ve got NaNoMriMo/GloPoWriMo buttons to add to your website.
- The Poetry School NaPoWriMo challenge. You need to register to participate.
- WORDxWord 30/30 challenge on their blog.
- Moore School 30 Day Poetry Challenge – a list of prompts for National Poetry Month.
- Contemporary Verse 2 2-Day challenge. is a twist, it takes place April 14-15. Registration deadline: Friday April 6, 2018 at midnight.
- Camp NaNoWriMo – for those wanting help starting another novel …
There’s a theme of secrets running through their prompts today! I will share other PAD challenges as I find them!
Poetry Readings coming up …
An Anthology I participated in – Moments Before Midnight –

launches in April. (April 26 to be precise). This is a poetry collection that explores the current political climate and my a home for some of my recent political pieces. MOM poets will be reading on the following dates
Thursday, April 12 Salem Poetry Project at the Barrel & Keg in Salem, Oregon 7 – 8:30 PM in Salem Oregon.
- Saturday, April 14 at the West Linn Library in West Linn, Oregon (I can’t make this event.)
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Thursday, April 26 at the Barrel & Keg in Salem, Oregon Western Oregon University (WOU) Noon to 5PM.-Western Oregon University, Monmouth, 345 Monmouth Ave. N. 97361-Building ITC 211 (Auditorium, 115 seats)Reading, workshops (including Spanish ones), ‘poet professors’, student organizations, etc
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Sunday, June 10, “Burning Down the Barnes” @ Barnes & Noble in Eugene,
Oregon 3-5 PM (I can’t make this event.)
I shared last year, how I participated in 2017 Write The Town, along with my local OPA chapter Mid Valley Poets Association (MVPA). One of the
WTW locations, Gaiety Hollow, has asked WVPA to do a poetry reading.
- Sunday, April 22 Garden Poems at Gaiety Hollow, in Salem, Oregon 2 – 4 pm
Hope to see you at one of these events!
You never quite know where a PAD prompt will take you …
Here’s one from a November PAD challenge back in 2010. The inspiration for this was how writing “feels” like. (Caution – a little profanity inside – but only a little.)
Let me know what you think ...