It's National Manatee Awareness Month once again! I'm not sure what started the trend of associating a month with a particular charity or subculture, but it has gotten pretty out of control. One designation for April that is missing from this list - overshadowed I guess by National Soft Pretzel Month - is National Poetry Month.
Last year I participated, writing a new poem every day in April and it was a success! Well, as much of a success as something that takes up all of my free time and generates no income can be. So I'm doing it agian.
For the next 30 days I will write and post a new poem determined by the following randomizing system: I have a deck of cards and a twenty sided die. Each card is assigned a topic and each side a form. In the morning I will draw a card and roll the die, and then, using the randomly selected topic and form, write and post the poem here before I go to sleep.
Last year I participated, writing a new poem every day in April and it was a success! Well, as much of a success as something that takes up all of my free time and generates no income can be. So I'm doing it agian.
For the next 30 days I will write and post a new poem determined by the following randomizing system: I have a deck of cards and a twenty sided die. Each card is assigned a topic and each side a form. In the morning I will draw a card and roll the die, and then, using the randomly selected topic and form, write and post the poem here before I go to sleep.
The list of topics is as follows:
RULE CARD WILD CARD
JOKER WILD CARD
JOKER WILD CARD
2C Progress
2D Potential Energy
2S Phantom limbs
2H Noble lies
3C Quails
3D Abortion Protesters
3S Octopuses
3H Bonfires
4C Before Pictures
4D Conks
4S Scratch Tickets
4H Komodo Dragons
5C David Icke
5S Silly Bandz
5H Schadenfreude
6D Two Brains, One Skull
6H Crying on the Internet
7C El Trains
7D The Dead Sea
7S Wooden Escalators
8C Zombies
8S Meteors/Meteorites
8H Invisible People
9C Dead Dogs
9D Cicadas
9S Whaling Ships
9H Resident Ghosts
10D Mitsuwa
10S Rooftops
10H Underage 'X's
JC Character sketch of a Starbucks regular
JD My Girlfriend's Toothbrush
JS Man Vs. Food
JH Magazine Street
QS Falling in Love on the T
KC Sadaharu Oh
KD Fat Elvis
KH Suicide
AC Apocalyptic Dreams
AD Sophomore Slumps
AS Sudden Enlightenment
AH Victories (small)
JOKER WILD CARD
JOKER WILD CARD
(I don't know why there are three jokers in this deck)
(I don't know why there are three jokers in this deck)
And the forms:
1 Prose
2 Haiku
3 Shakespearean Sonnet
4 Ruba'i
5 Sestina
6 Blank Verse
8 Free Verse
10 Free Verse
12 Limerick
13 Dialogue
14 Rondeau
15 Acrostic
16 Tweet Length
17 Sapphic Ode
18 Beat Poem
20 Any Above Form
Caveats:
- I will follow the system everyday even if it means I have to write a Ruba'i about Two Girls, One Cup.
- Once a topic is used, it will not be put back in the deck.
- On rare occasions, some re-rolling may be necessary. I will adhere to the guidelines of this project as much as is realistic, but I'm not about to write 25 sestinas this month.
- I will follow the system everyday even if it means I have to write a Ruba'i about Two Girls, One Cup.
- Once a topic is used, it will not be put back in the deck.
- On rare occasions, some re-rolling may be necessary. I will adhere to the guidelines of this project as much as is realistic, but I'm not about to write 25 sestinas this month.
- Question: Can the Craigslist Missed Connection really be considered a poetic form? Answer: Chill out, Robert Pinsky. I could use this space to argue yes, citing the deterioration of "poetry" as it relates to the death of the monoculture, but I don't need to, because I have full creative control here.
- Like last year, it's a safe bet that you'll find a good bunch of doggerel on this site, but maybe a nugget of gold or two, we'll see.
Thanks to those who participated with topic suggestions. I'll try to do them justice.
Enjoy and thanks for reading!
