Another April, Another Poem-a-Day

So here's the final tally: 44 poems, most of which were written for Poetic Asides' Poem-a-Day Challenge and/or Tiferet Journal's Poem-a-thon. Only three were written outside of those two projects, and they were two limericks and a three-line tribute to Prince. Most days I submitted the same poem (or a version of the same poem) to both websites, combining their prompts into a "dual prompt" for the poem, but on eleven days I did write separate poems for each in response to their individual prompts. I think I might have raised the recommended sponsor donations total of $100 for Tiferet, which means I will get a copy of The Crafty Poet by poet acquaintance Diane Lockward (I've heard it's very good) and a year's subscription to Tiferet. I'm also told that at least one of my poems from this month will appear in a future issue of Tiferet. In case you still want to donate in my name, click here to link to my poetry and a button to get to the sponsor page.

In other news, I am about to begin a poetry workshop course at the Eilandarts Center in Merchantville, NJ. Here is the link for that announcement. If you are in the Camden County or Burlington County areas, you might want to consider registering - it will be fun!

Lastly, here are two more poems I wrote exclusively for Poetic Asides. The first is an "index" poem - the prompt was to write a poem with a title that begins with "Important" (Pardon my politics - I don't sound off that often.) The second prompt was to write a "haphazard" poem.  I used a haiku-like structure on this one.

Important, Self-

Abortions, punishing  women for, 301

Apprentice, The, 190, 193-195

Bankruptcies, financial, 78-79, 134-144, 230-239

                           moral, 100-101, 167, 205, 212-213, 300-301                                

Daughter, would date if she wasn’t, 330

Deal, Art of the, 67-68, 74-76, 110-111, 135, 156, 200-201, 234, 270-273

Important, self-, 11-13, 22-34,36, 40, 42-57, 60-79, 82, 84-110, 120-183, 200-335

Megalomania, definition, 1-335

Mexicans, drug dealers, 223, 227

                   rapists, 224, 226

Mexico, build a wall around, 222-225

                paying for wall, 225-226

Misogyny, definition, 1-335

Muslims, banning, 215-219, 300-305

Obama, Barack, See Birth Certificate

Seven-Eleven, See 9-11

Small Hands, See Penis

Steaks, Trump, 135-136, 200

Taj Mahal, Trump, 68, 83-85, 185-186

Towers, Trump, 135-136, 177, 201-202, 256, 274

University, Trump, 142-145, 213-216

War Hero, not a, See John McCain

Water, Trump, 173-174

Waterboarding, 302

                                and worse, 303-304

Whatever, blood coming out of her, See Kelly, Meghan

White Supremacists, See Endorsements

Woman’s Card, See Clinton, Hillary

Women, ugly, 35, 47, 68, 79, 101, 123, 144, 186, 200, 201, 213, 245, 267, 290, 302, 313, 321, 344

Haphazard

I cling to the belief that the haphazard and the hopscotch,

the creature that sips among many flowers,

may actually come up with something....

                                                                                - Brad Leithauser

We could talk about

monkeys and typewriters,

but that's so shopworn.

We could watch ants

on a hot summer sidewalk,

an organized swarm.

The butterfly flitters

at random, or so it seems -

he has favorites.

Nature's not random,

it progresses by numbers,

said Fibonacci.

Golden Ratio

in the chambered nautilus,

the sunflower's eye.

Pandemonium

is not as manifest

as we once thought.

There is a design,

a dance around the center,

that makes us wonder.