A few years ago, my friends and I heard from a teacher that April was National Poetry Month. As none of us were (or are), in any way, practiced poets, we naturally decided to create our own Poetry Month Challenge. For every day of April, we would write one poem. We had to actually write a poem every day. If we missed a day, we couldn't write two the next day to make up - you had to write a poem every day.
That first year, I'm pretty sure none of us made it. We got really close, but (actually, it may've been on the same day now that I think about it) we forgot to write a poem until after midnight on one day. It was quite tragic. The next year, we didn't hardly try at all, and last year, I forgot about it until June. Good stuff!
Well, now, another poetry month is approaching, and I've decided to take the challenge again. But this year, it's going to be much more legit! I'm determined to succeed this year! And to add to the challenge, I'm not going to write free verse this year - which is all I'd ever write in past years. That and acrostic poems. I'm not a very skilled wordsmith, you see. That's why I want to try to challenge that weakness this year. This year, I'm going to write a haiku everyday.
For those who don't know, haikus are actually relatively simple. Usually they only consist of three lines and it doesn't necessarily have to rhyme. They often relate to nature as well. So you may not think this is much of a challenge for me. Ah, but you underestimate my total lack of skill! My challenge here is to fit my daily thoughts into only three lines and hold them to a strict meter.
I'm kind of excited! As poetry is easily one of my weakest points in writing, I'm really looking forward to learning more and, hopefully, become a better writer for doing so.
To encourage myself to hold to this, I'm going to try to post all my poems here, every day as I write them. Or after I edit them, I don't know. However this happens to work, I'm going to try to post every day. I don't know what's going to happen or what I'm going to come up with or even if I'm going to succeed this month, but hey! It's nice to have goals.
