April is National Poetry Month, and this year I decided to do the 30/30 challenge, which means you write a poem every single day of the month. I found prompts for every day, and these are the last 15 poems!

Day 16: MAGIS (meaning “More” in Latin)

I live in a coffin,

Every day another nail.

I breathe concentrated air,

Every day another small breath.

If let the darkness consume me,

Every day I’m more blind than the day before

But there has to be something more.

I won’t let the darkness consume me,

Because I’m hanging onto the sliver of light

Hoping for something more.

I won’t let the final nail complete the curse,

Because I’m hanging onto the silence,

Praying for something more.

I won’t waste the air,

Because I’m saving it

For something more.

Day 17: Grab the closest book, any book. Open to page 29. Write down 10 words that catch your eye. Use at least 7 of them in a poem.

I grabbed Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, and the words I used are: ‘molting’, ‘false’, ‘destroying’, ‘philosopher’, ‘customers’, ‘fatal’, ‘sailing’, ‘solitary’, ‘season’, and ‘worn’.

In the molting season

The dry air turns the philosopher’s words

To ash

Destroying any hope of salvation.

The false prophets sailing their fatal words

On the wind like dead leaves falling

During the molting season

Any customers worn by the solitary chains

They put themselves in

During the molting season.

Day 18: Write a poem about a color, but never name that color.

Can you guess which color I wrote about? I’ll put the answer at the end of the poem.

Your mood can change

From love to hate

Anger to tenderness

loathing to passion.

You are pulsing, throbbing,

Rushing, exploding.

You are heat,

You are fire.

Your rage is overwhelming.

Your devotion is intense,

You are extreme.

You embody two ends

Of the emotional spectrum.

Which will you mean today?

Pretty obvious, right? I was talking about the color red.

Day 19: Write a poem about an argument between two people. Take the perspective of each person.

What are you trying to say?

-Just try to see it from my perspective

I don’t understand.

-You could at least try.

But don’t spell it out for me.

-Then how will you know?

I’m not stupid.

-Don’t you think I know that?

Day 20: Write a poem that is a prayer/meditation or write a poem simply incorporating the act of prayer/meditation.

Hey God,

How is she today?

Is she there with you?

Does she know where I am?

Hey God,

I want to know if she sees me.

Can she see what I’m doing?

Does she know where I am?

Hey God,

I miss her.

Does she know where I am?

Day 21: Write a poetic diary entry.

Dear Diary,

It was just another day,

Nothing special happened.

Nothing ever happens.

Dear Diary,

It was just another day,

Something special may have happened,

But I can’t see it from here.

Dear Diary,

It wasn’t just any other day,

Something special did happen,

I can finally wake up.

Day 22: Create A Poem That Can Be Read In Either Direction – Top To Bottom And Bottom To Top

There

You

Are

Day 23: Spring Training

The dawn of spring

Is the earlier sunrises

I smell the preparation

It drips down my forehead

Like a waterfall during a drought.

Spring approaches

I can see it on the horizon.

It taunts me

I’m ready for it.

Day 24: Write a poem about what you wish you knew when you were younger.

You may be hurt,

You may be blind,

You may be broken,

But everything, everyone you know,

Will change.

You may want to scream,

You may want to cry,

But know that I love you.

Soon you’ll discover me,

Deep down inside.

But know that I’ve always been there,

Waiting for my time to shine.

Day 25: Parallel Universe. Imagine you, but in a completely different life based on making a different decision that impacted everything else.

She’s someone else.

She’s not skeptical,

Not wary about the world

She hasn’t been broken and put back together so many times

Some of the parts don’t fit right.

She hasn’t looked evil in the eye,

Sometimes letting it in,

Sometimes turning away.

She hasn’t seen what people can do,

When she trusts them too much.

She’s also naïve.

She doesn’t know who she is,

Or where she wants to go.

She’s someone else.

Someone I would rather not be.

Day 26: Listen to a radio station or other music source and listen to music you don’t normally listen to. Write a poem inspired by the first song or message you hear.

For this challenge, I listened to a country music station, because country is the one genre that I don’t ever listen to. The first song I heard was Heaven by Kane Brown.

When we were together,

You said there was nothing better.

You said the clouds had parted,

And every day was sunny.

I remember the way you would look at me,

Like you were looking at a flower;

The first bloom of spring,

After a harsh, cold, barren winter.

But, as all flowers do,

I wilted,

As did your smile.

It used to be heaven,

But soon we’d descended into hell.

Day 27: Stranger Conversations. Start the first line of your poem with a word or phrase form a recent passing conversation between you and someone you don’t know

“I probably wasn’t hard to find”

Of course you weren’t.

You stood out like a full moon at night,

Like the first flower to bloom after a devastating fire.

Of course I first saw your beauty,

But then I saw something deeper,

Something I wanted to get to know.

You’re intriguing,

Like a light under a door at the end of a long, dark hallway,

Like a rainbow in a sea of grey raindrops.

You weren’t hard to find,

And that’s why I found you.

Do you want to find me?

Day 28: What word would you like to see removed from the English Language?

Those who know me know I hate the word gurney. That’s the word that inspired this poem.

They took him away on it

She took her last breath on it

It can never mean anything good

It doesn’t come off the tongue smoothly like “crisp”

It leaks out of the corners of the mouth like blood

And sounds like nails on a chalkboard

It leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

No one likes hearing it,

No one wants to say it.

Day 29: Write a poem about a board game.

One step forward

Two steps back

That’s just the way the game is played.

You think you’re making good progress,

But one roll of the dice and you’re back where you started.

One roll of the dice can determine your future.

You can roll once,

And win the whole thing,

Two steps forward,

One step back.

It’s a dance.

A waltz with a pair of dice.

Day 30: Write a thank-you poem. Your choice, thanks to someone, for someone, for an event.

I originally wrote a poem for this challenge on the date, but more recently I wrote on with the same theme that I like better, so I may have cheated a little, but enjoy this newer poem.

Thanks for last night.

The bonfire,

The music,

The laughter,

The closeness.

Thanks for last night.

Thanks for last night.

My biggest fear is being alone,

But how can I feel alone,

How can I cry

When I’m surrounded by love?

Thanks for last night.

Thanks for last night.

Support I have never known,

Trust I have never felt,

Solitude I have never experienced.

Thanks for last night.

Thanks for last night.

My biggest fear is being alone,

But how can I feel alone

When my whole self is being embraced,

When I truly feel like I belong.

Thanks for last night.