30 Poems in 30 Days

I’m taking the challenge to write 30 poems in 30 days for National Poetry Month.  Will you join me in celebrating the wordsmith’s journey? 

This April is the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month, inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996.  It is one of the largest literary celebrations in the world.  To celebrate this vital art, I’ve taken the challenge to write 30 poems in 30 days.

How will you celebrate poetry this month and beyond?  

Poets.org is an Amazing Resource

You can begin with this great list:       30 Ways to Celebrate Poetry  

A few activities I intend to try include: #15 – Chalk a poem on the sidewalk, #19 – Read about different poetic forms (and update my website’s Poetry Devices page), and #27 – Watch some poetry movies.  Movie List

For teachers, there are two features I highly recommend.  Teach this Poem, and Dear Poet.  Poets.org has an education advisor who is connecting the lessons to common core standards, so there’s just no reason not to keep the art in a child’s heART!

Teach this Poem          Dear Poet

Teach this Poem provides a poem, the audio or a visual performance of it, and a short classroom lesson to help learners explore the poem.  The poems have been chosen specifically to compliment and expand the learner’s content and knowledge base.

Dear Poet is a multimedia education project that invites young people to write letters in response to poems written and read by some of the award-winning poets who serve on the Academy of American Poets.

Taking the Challenge

Follow my poetry whirlwind here:

My Poetry – 30 Poems in 30 Days

I’ve decided to focus on writing haiku, tanka, epigrams, free verse and rhyming verse.  You can see my first haiku written for April Fool’s Day, on the link above.  I’ll add a poem a day.

On Twitter: @dreamingdoren

I decided to focus on the short forms of poetry so that I could poetry slam in the twitter world, with its limit of 140 characters.  I’ll also be experimenting with haiku, tanka, and epigrams because as a normally looong-winded writer, I want to learn how to say something powerful in a short time.  For those of you who know me, I suggest you have a good laugh now.

Haiku – A traditional Japanese poem.  Haiku use a 3-line form with seventeen total syllables.  It is written in a 5/7/5 syllable count.  Haiku emphasize simplicity, intensity and directness of expression.  There is often an element of dichotomy inferred.  Historically, haiku focus on images from nature.  Modern and romanized haiku have expanded into many themes.  Here’s an example of my passionate-themed haiku:

A thousand mornings
Until star-shine and sunshine
Whisper our goodnight

Tanka – This is another type of Japanese poem.  Tanka is a thirty-one-syllable poem, traditionally written in a single unbroken line.   Tanka translates as “short song.”   Tanka is best known in romanized languages as a five-line, 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count form.  Traditionally, Japanese poets would share tanka at waka (songs or verses) parties. People would sometimes pair up to write tanka, one person writing the first 3 lines and another person answering with the next 2 lines.

I tweeted an invitation to finish my tanka today.  If I get any responses I’ll add it to my page: 30 Poems in 30 Days.

Will You Finish My Tanka?

DreamingD tweeted
Will You Finish My Tanka?
Waka party now

Epigram – An epigram is a short, pithy saying, usually in verse, often with a quick, satirical twist at the end. The subject is usually a single thought or event. The word “epigram” comes from the Greek epigraphein, meaning “to write on, inscribe,” and originally referred to the inscriptions written on stone monuments in ancient Greece. (Definition courtesy of poets.org)  Check out their incredible source of poetic forms and devices, here:  Poet’s Glossary

Here’s my first epigram — a metaphysical twist on my writing efforts: 

In all her glory, a poet’s folly will timely meet with Goddess Kali.

Kali is the Goddess of Time, Change, Power, Creation, Preservation, and Destruction.  She is a destroyer, principally of evil forces. With my epigram, I suggest that poetry’s glory destroys the evils of dead language and conceptualizations.  I suggest that a poet’s folly is that she will most often be lost to the pages of history.  Yet, various Hindu cosmologies worship Kali as the ultimate reality. She is often portrayed standing or dancing on her consort, the Hindu God, Shiva, who lies calm and prostrate beneath her.  Finally, I suggest that history lie calm and prostrate beneath life’s poetry.

View More Photos by Carl Purcell

Doren Damico is a lyricist and poet with a passion for the art of being human.  For more poems and poetic commentary check out her blog archive, Poetry, at: dorendamico.com