PAD Redux: The November Poem-a-Day Challenge

November is the official month for NaNoWriMo  (National Novel Writing Month), and while I've never been ambitious enough to attempt a novel, I do usually participate in a poem-a-day (PAD) challenge from Robert Lee Brewer's Poetic Asides blog. I also write during his April PAD Challenge, and I've already had a poem from that month accepted for future publication. This month, he suggests that poets write with the intent to create a chapbook composed mostly of poems written over these 30 days, so a common theme is recommended. That worked for me well in 2013, when I wrote a series of baseball poems, many of which appeared in my most recent chapbook, Hits and Sacrifices. This month, I haven't found a common theme yet (though I wrote a few "pet" poems), but I thought I'd share my poems as I usually do every April. I have some catching up to do here, so I'll post a few each day on this blog till I'm up to date. So here are the poems I wrote for Days 1, 2 and 3, with the prompt for each one.

[Day 1: A "once upon a time" poem]

Once Upon a Time

Once we thought we were eagles, but

upon reflection, saw we were mere pigeons,

a flock milling on dirty city pavements;

time, the great leveler of aspirations.

[Day 2: A poem of "threes"]

Three Haiku

EF2 monster

slammed a  tree right through our roof -

Happy Halloween

five weeks into fall,

no more wardrobe confusion -

jacket required

cold windless night gives

everything over to frost -

glistening morning

[Day 3: An "alpha" poem]

Alpha-Bits and Omega 3

I don't care one iota

if you're never a knockout like Catherine Zeta Jones.

I'd settle for Delta Burke.

My gamma never had to worry about nutrition,

so why should you? If you eat another yogurt,

you may start to mu.

I guess there's nothing nu

about health-conscious diets,

but I won't tau you what to eat or not.

You love Greek food, for instance,

with lambda die for, or a good gy-rho.

I'd beta fortune you'll live a long life.

So phi upon all of those who shame you,

although with a heavy psi,

you may admit you eta pi.