Ariel, Pacific NW poet

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.)
• 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
• 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.)