APRIL WRITING CHALLENGE

April Writing Challenge

April is National Poetry Month so it's appropriate we write a poem. Don't get all sweaty hands and uptight about writing a poem -- poems come in all sorts: big old things like The Odyssey and short little two liners, even Hallmark greetings. They don't have to rhyme, you don't have to count syllables, they don't have to have a specific form or be about love or spring or heroes any specific thing.

The ideal way to get inspired is to read some poet you like: Emily Dickenson, Maya Angelou, Billy Collins, Mary Oliver or the classics you probably loved in school. If you imitate them, that's okay. Again, a type 3, because it's a craft, a skill, even though just one page.

So write a poem, at least four lines, as much longer as you like, on any subject you like and send it to two partners. Might we have at last ten people in this swap? Snail mail.