30 Day Poetry Challenge

This poetry challenge is in honor of National Poetry Month. There are 30 poetry prompts provided here, one for each day of April. Original on Facebook, but for credit it must be accessible at school by me (FB is not accessible at school). Post entries below, create a shared GoogleDoc, or email me your poetry. Happy Poetry Month!

Day 1: Write a poem where each line starts with a letter from your first name (an Acrostic). It can be about anything, but it should not be about you or your name.
Day 2: Who was the last person you texted? Write a five-line poem to that person.
Day 3: Find the nearest book (of any kind). Turn to page 8. Use the first ten full words on the page in a poem. You may use them in any order, anywhere in the poem.
Day 4: Write a haiku (a three line poem where the first line has 5 syllables, the second line has 7 syllables, and the third line has 5 syllables). Haikus are often about nature, but yours can be about anything.
Day 5: Write a three-line poem about lemons without using the following words: lemon, yellow, round, fruit, citrus, tart, juicy, peel, and sour.
Day 6: Write a poem of any length incorporating every word from your latest FB status update in an order.
Day 7: Take a short walk outdoors in your surrounding environment. When you find an object you identify with, write a poem using the image as a metaphor for yourself or your life.
Day 8: Write a Cinquain on a topic of your choice (1st line = 2 syllables, 2nd line = 4 syllables, 3rd line = 6 syllables, 4th line = 8 syllables, 5th (final line) = 2 syllables).
Day 9: Quickly jot down four verbs, four adjectives, and four nouns. Write a poem utilizing all 12 words.
Day 10: Pick a one-line song lyric to serve as an epigraph to your poem. Then, write the poem to accompany it. The poem need not be directly related to the song.
Day 11: Write a list poem.
Day 12: Tell your life story in 6 words (see smithmag.net for more on this . . . ).
Day 13: Write a short poem that a child would like.
Day 14: Write a bad poem; make it as lousy as you can, do everything wrong. Let yourself be awful.
Day 15: Rewrite (“regenerate”) any poem you wrote in the first two weeks of the 30dpc. (see rigormort.us if you’d prefer to regenerate someone else’s poetry…).
Day 16: Spend some time with a favorite poem (written by someone else). Write a poem in response to (or in dialogue with) that poem.
Day 17: Write a poem that employs a rhyme scheme. It can be a poem in verse or not. "Tell it slant" or not.
Day 18: Write a poem without any end rhyme, only internal rhyme.
Day 19: Imagine yourself performing any household task/chore, then write a poem using what you've imagined as an extended metaphor for writing: an Ars Poetica.
Day 20: Write a narrative poem detailing a specific childhood memory.
Day 21: Select one of the poems you've already written as part of this challenge and revise it by choosing all new verbs.
Day 22: What is the first car you bought/drove/remember? Write a poem about it.
Day 23: Write a seven line poem that begins with "it’s true that fresh air is good for the body" (from Frank O'Hara's poem "Ave Maria") and ends with "this is our body" (from Gary Snyder's "The Bath").
Day 24: Write a poem that's different in some way from anything you've ever written. Take a chance! Be wild!
Day 25: Write a poem that includes all of the following words: pistachio, ink, pebble, weather, varnish.
Day 26: Gather some magazines/catalogs you don't mind cutting up and spend 10 minutes flipping through the magazines/catalogs looking for words/sentences that spark your interest. Cut out the words as you go. When the 10 minutes are up, arrange the words to piece together a cut-up poem.
Day 27: Write the poem you’ve been too afraid to write.
Day 28: Visit a virtual museum gallery and take a look around until you find an object that intrigues you. Write a poem inspired by the artwork.
Day 29: Briefly research a poetic form of your choice and write a poem according to the rules of that particular form. It can be a received form or a nonce form.
Day 30: Write a poem employing extended metaphor to illustrate the experience of the last 30 days as you were participating in the challenge.

Comments

Anonymous said…
As one of the creators of this challenge--along with Danielle Blasko--I just wanted to provide a link to the challenge's Facebook page! I hope your students enjoy participating! --Amelia Cook

www.facebook.com/30dpc

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