2011 Poetry Month

Hiya—here are the poems from my 2011 Poetry Month Poem-A-Day Challenge (below), where I shared a poem, the story behind it, and a poetry prompt so you can write your own.

When I first took the challenge of writing a poem a day in April of 2010, it was so exciting, so raw and so life-changing, I’ve been writing a poem a day ever since.  I send them, every day (by sailmail!) to my dear friend, author & poet Bruce Balan, who sails around the world.

Check out  TeachingAuthors.com , where I blog every other Friday and usually include an original poem.

Now…buckle your seat belt, clip on a pair of wings, and hold onto your four-legged friend!

white markee light

Riddle

I was in a waiting room.  Waiting.  So I pulled out my favorite pen. The barrel is pink but the ink is not. I adore this pen beyond reason.  I found it abandoned a few month ago, and ever since I adopted it, my heart goes all pitter-pattery when I zip open my backpack and see it.

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Eli & Elsie

This Is Just to Say, Cat

After a day chasing my tail, looking for poems in all the wrong places, Jenna’s poem inspired me to create my own THIS IS JUST TO SAY poem …

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Star Thistle

Long Walk

Wearing sturdy shoes and wide-brimmed straw hats,
my big sister and I trudge across our farm’s sandy soil,
through Johnson grass, to the river.

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Eli checks out one of the new turtles

Two Turtles

 “Oh joy!” one new turtle seemed to say, swimming off. The other tucked his head into his shell and sat on a rock.

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Eli and Elsie meet

How Do You Describe a Smell?

X PUPPY PERFUME by April Halprin Wayland It’s powdery— cotton candy and dust from a carnival midway It’s musky— leaf litter of an old oak grove It’s all mixed up— crackers and couch pillows: your own furry fragrance your downy dogness as I burrow into you each morning. (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights

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flowers bush white fragrant

Villanelle

Did I pretend? Perhaps a dream…or was it true?
Thirteen. I was thirteen. It was July.
I swear I didn’t make it up…that night I flew.

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Eli on the last day of Poetry Month 2015

Mask Poem

CAT AT MIDNIGHT by April Halprin Wayland Night. She pads out to the porch, I hide. “Come sleep with me,” she says, while turning off the light. I wait. She goes to bed. Then mastering my fright, I slink inside. I’m careful where I tread I tiptoe past his plate and cross a rope he’s

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Hiking

How Does it Feel?

My body after the hike felt so…so what? It was vibrating from the exercise and from the green of the day. This is what I tried to put down in a poem.

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library

Sounds Like a Poem

Take your notebook to a park or a restaurant or a school or the beach and write down the sounds. It may help to close your eyes to hear them.  Select the most interesting; write a poem.

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Nonsense Poem!

Wake up!  Are you a Jabberwock?
your head has nodded to the desk
at first I thought ’twas writer’s block
Oh, beamish boy—you’re hair’s askew!
I kick your shoe—I think it best
before our teacher catches you.

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(c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

Sign a Song!

Xx Oops!  This poem was set to post on April 23rd…but never actually appeared.  So…here it is…listen to this under-one-minute clip before reading the poem… x CALLING ALL FOLKIES by April Halprin Wayland X People, listen to the friends all singing Come, bring your guitar, share a song People, listen to the friends all singing

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newspaper girl reading

Thank You Poem

HEADLINE, DEADLINE, END-OF-LINE by April Halprin Wayland X There are no ants who climb these lines to hoist up every front-page word— absurd. X No crow flies low to drop in twos the sentences which caw the news. X Occasionally a friend will send a music essay which informs (though silence seems to be the

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Eli at the dog park 4-11 (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

Imitate Your Favorite Poem

x x Who’s coming in the dog park gate?!?!?! Okay…first read this poem: x THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE by William Butler Yeats x I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for

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Eli at the dog park 4-11 (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

How Do You Haiku?

x METRONOMES x by April Halprin Wayland x In this stifling heat, two dogs meet, pant.  Their tails wag a slow hello. x c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved x The story behind the poem: x I was at the dog park, watching Eli sidle up to a new dog. They stood side-by-side,

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photo (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

Metaphors Be With You

x DON’T TRY TO FIX ME by April Halprin Wayland x Just let me be. Just for a while. Some big, dead animal presses down. I don’t know why I feel like this. x Don’t try to fix me. Just let me be. x I have no breath. There isn’t anything to give— there’s nothing

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yellow tulips by April Halprin Wayland (c) 2011

Reverso Poems

x BLOOMING by April Halprin Wayland BLOOMING A poem grows from scattered seed in muddy soil— a muddle. x One green leaf, a vine meandering, winding around, climbing towards light. Me: gardening poetry. x Poetry: gardening me? Climbing towards light? Winding around? A vine meandering? One green leaf? x A muddle in muddy soil from

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