Writer’s Digest April 2023 Poems
April 8, 2022 Poems2022/04/09
April 7th Poems2022/04/08
April 6th, 2022 Poems2022/04/08
April 5 2022, Poems2022/04/08
April 4th 2022, Poems2022/04/08
2022 April Poetry Madness April 1 to 3 poems
This is my 7th year to participate in the April poetry challenge. This year I am just doing two prompts, Writer’s Digest and Writing com Dew Drop Inn. Last year I wrote over 300 poems in one month, this year’s much more modest goal is about 150 poems, of which I will post about 90.
i will post them here, and on all poetry, poetry soul, writing.com, and Writer’s Digest. Medium, Watt pad, Substack, and FB.
Index
Life Is A Dream Of Chocolate Covered Trees
Margo Taylor Greene’s Word Salad
Dreams Do Come True If You Believe In Dreams
Marjorie Taylor Greene, WTF’s Wrong With You?
Cosmic Cat From Berkeley
Healing Touch
The End of Time
Donald Trump the anti-Christ
The sound of Korean
The Tearing of the Social Fabric Homophone Poem
End of Time
The sound of Korean
Tower of Power
How Will It End?
The rule of ten
Finding Pleasure in Small Things
Favorite Korean Food
Madness in the United States
Many virtual connections, few real friends
Movie Choices Writer’s Digest
April’s Fool Day
Anticipation
Life is A Dream of Chocolate Covered Trees
Life is a dream
A dream of chocolate-covered trees
To see what can’t be seen
To hear what can’t be heard
To live in order to die
And to die in order to live.
Note: one of my oldest poems was written circa 1970 when I was 14
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 27
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write an anapodoton poem.
Margo Taylor Greene’s Word Salad
While defending
The Pentagon document leak suspect
Marjorie Taylor Green
Tweeted a typical nonsensical
paranoid
World salad
The USG is gearing up
To censor patriotic white
Christian American anti-war
Targeting
Political prisoners
Who dares to stand up
And tell the truth
Against the communist
Radical left-woke Marxists
Who is taking over the government
Greene claimed that Americans
Are on the verge
Of losing more freedoms
In the wake
of the government’s
Efforts to pass
The restrict act
All part of the evil
Fascist communist Marxist
Plot against patriotic
White citizens
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 26
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a response poem.
Dreams Do come true if You Believe In Dreams
Sam Adams
Met his wife
In a dream
He saw the most beautiful woman
In the world
Talking to him
In a strange Asian Language
He yelled out
“Who are you”
She faded away
As he fell to the ground
During a boring physics class
For eight long years
She haunted his dreams
Coming to him weekly
Then one day
He was teaching in Korea
When he had the last dream
She told him
“don’t worry, we’ll meet soon”
That night she walked off a bus
Out of his dreams
Entering his reality
Entering his life
Six weeks after becoming his wife
Dreams do come true
If you believe in dreams.
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 25
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, we have our fourth and final two-for-Tuesday prompt.
For today’s prompt, we have our fourth (and final) two-for-Tuesday prompt, which means you get two prompts, and they are:
1. Write a dream poem, and/or…
2. Write a reality poem.
Healing Touch
My wife says
I have a superpower
I am very hot
To the touch
Radiating outward
Chi
Infrared heat
Every night
For forty years
I have been warming her up
As she is cold-blooded
Almost like a reptile
Always cold to the touch
And my touch warms her up
Just my duty
Of love
At the end of the day.
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 24
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a touch poem.
We’ve already written poems related to smell, sound, and taste, so let’s keep hammering away on the senses.
For today’s prompt, write a touch poem. For the senses, I’m thinking of touch as a hand reaching out, though it could also be a foot or just bodies pushed close like in a concert or public transportation. But that’s just when thinking about the senses.
Fear of Communism
Watching right-wing politicians
And news pundits
One can’t help
But wonder
If we are living
In a strange alternative universe
For to hear
The line of Marjorie Taylor Greene
It is 1955 all over again
Communism is on the march
Marxists out to destroy America
Radical left-wing demons
trying to cancel
Normal patriotic white Americans
Who dares to stand up
To the communists
All around us
And they fill the airwaves
And the internet
With constant fear
And paranoia
About the alleged
Communist Pedophile Satanic
LGBT conspiracy to turn us all gay
And the black life matters folks
And Antifa
Coming to kill white people
And to take away our guns
And other fear-mongering memes
24/7
Be Afraid be Afraid
The commies are after you.
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 23
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a fear poem.ing out on the last piece of the piece or the fear of dying.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, WTF’s Wrong with You?
What’s the fuck’s wrong with you?
I mean, seriously, Marjorie?
Where have you been
These last 50 years?
Hiding under a rock,
Living in a cave.
Did you just wake up
From a 50-year-old coma?
Are communists out to get us?
Marxists everywhere?
Acting like the Cold war
Never ended?
It ain’t the 50s anymore
The Communists lost the war
There are no more communists.
Except perhaps
In my old hometown
Of Berkeley
Where it is always 1969.
Communism is dead
Has been for almost 50 years
Did you not get the memo?
I mean enough of this BS
Did the John Birchers
Take over your body?
Do you even know
WTC you are talking about.
Do you even care?
That the entire world
Think you are bat sh..t crazy
Even too crazy for Fox News?
Communism my ass
Marxists are out to get us
Please dear
Just do us all a favor
STFU already
About the communists.
For today’s prompt, take the phrase “What (blank),” replace the blank with a new word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles might include: “What Are You Doing Here,” “What a Great Time,” “Whatever You Say,” and/or “What Kind of Poem Are You Going to Write?”
So make a decision: Is your “what” poem leading to a question or a statement (or maybe both?).
The Cosmic Cat from Berkeley
I next encountered the divine
Many years later in Berkeley, California
I had gone home to be with my Mother
While taking leave from my job
in the Foreign Service
I had two weeks there by myself
My wife came later
near the end of the trip
every morning I woke up
had coffee
Did yoga
Spoke to my mother
Who was sliding into dementia?
Day by day losing her reason
Then I would go out
And explore the city
Go to a museum
Go to one neighborhood
And just be there
Rediscovering the Bay area
After years of being away
Having dinner with old friends
Seeing movies etc
Every morning a black cat came to visit
The cat was friendly and waited for me
And then would join me in my morning rambles
Following me to the bus stop
I started talking to the black cat
He looked at me
with a spark of divinity
In his dark eyes
I called him the cosmic cat
He seemed to like that
He would look at me
And I opened up to me
Told the cat all my dark secrets
As I walked the streets
Of the old neighborhood
Every morning and every evening the cat
Would be there to greet me
And to carry out our endless conversation
Then I had to leave
And in our final conversation
I asked the cosmic cat
Say, Cat are you just a cat
Or are you a demonic cat
Are you possessed by God?
Or by Satan
The cat looked at me
And I realized that God
Was indeed residing in the cat
But that god was residing everywhere
All I had to do was open my mind
And the rest would follow
So I said Goodbye to the cosmic cat
And he purred and came up to me
And I felt the comforting presence of the divine
As I said goodbye to the cosmic cat
And said goodbye to my mother
As this was the last time
That we would be able to talk
I told my mother about the cosmic cat
She smiled and said that the cat
was there for me and her
to comfort us both in our hour of need
and that the cat was indeed
a cosmic cat
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 20
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write an animal poem.
The End of time writer’s Digest
My dear
When I met you
I knew
That I was fated
To love you
Until the end of time
And beyond
That was just my fate
That we would meet
On that date
I embraced my fate
And that is the end
Of the beginning
Of our cosmic journey
Together
Until the end of time
And beyond.
Day 16 Blank of a Blank
For today’s prompt, take the phrase “The (blank) of a (blank),” replace the blanks with a new word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles might include: “The Beginning of a Story,” “The Wrong Side of a Situation,” “The Apple of an Eye,” and/or “The Latest Excuses of a Continuing Problem.”
What is Love?
What is love?
Is it nothing
But biochemistry?
Is it madness?
Is it just
A search for connections?
In a cold cruel world?
That does not care
For us at all?
It is all of that
And none of that
Those who know
What Love is
Do not tell
That is the Zen
Of Love
Day 18
For today’s prompt, we have our third two-for-Tuesday prompt, which means you get two prompts, and they are:
Write an everything poem, and/or…
Write an anti-love poem.
As longtime participants know, this is my favorite prompt, which is why it returns every challenge. Write a love poem, or write a not-love poem.
https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/10-best-love-poems-ever
Donald the Anti-Christ
It is easier to
Be consumed
With revenge
The desire to get back
At those who trespass
Against us
Especially so
For the MAGA nation
Followers
of the King
Of revenge politics
The Donald
The Anti-Christ
Than to follow
The wisdom
Of Allah, Buddha, Christ,
Jesus, and Mother Mary
And let it be
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 13
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a forgive poem.
For today’s prompt, write a forgive poem. The poem could be about forgiveness in general, or it could focus on a specific instance of forgiveness or grace. There are times when we are called upon to forgive others, and times when we ask others to forgive us. And sometimes that includes forgiving ourselves. Be forgiving as you poem today.
The Sound of Korean Writer’s Digest
I have been studying Korean
For almost 45 years
First heard back in 1979
In the Peace Corps
I still struggle daily
But Korea is no longer
A stranger
Korean is my second language
And I hear it all around me
In my retirement home
I study Korean daily
On Duotrope
And while watching K Drama
The language at first
Sounded harsh
As if everyone was yelling
And screaming
Later, I learned
Some Korean songs
And the language
Became less discordant
To this day though
I find a Korean woman
Speaking Korean
To be incredibly sexy
Packing so much emotion
And sexual tension
In every word
I suppose I will study Korean
And speak it
Until the day I die.
2023 April PaD Challenge: Day 12
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a sound poem.
Tear in the Fabric of Space and Time
With every word
The former president
Causes a tear
In the basic fundamental
Political order
Leading to many people
To tear up
In fear
Which is no doubt the object
His followers do not object
To inflict pain and suffering
In their endless quest
To own their hated enemies
The radical left Marxist radical
Demonic Deep state libtards
Who are conspiring to turn
America into another communist
Dystopian nightmare
Only the great leader Trump
Can save America’s Democracy]
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a homograph poem.
Homographs are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. Sometimes they are pronounced the same, but that’s not always the case. Click here to find a list of homographs, though there are many more homographs than these to use.
Ode to the Tower of Power
The greatest funk band
There ever was
You are the epitome
Of funk and soul music
The very definition of funk
Multi-racial
Multi-cultural
Multi-talented
Mult-gendered
The best horn section
In the universe
Just sublime
Formed in the East Bay
In the turbulent 60s
Playing that funky music
For almost 50 years
Their love song
You’re still a young man
Is perhaps the greatest
make out song
Of all times
The first song
I slowed danced to
Back in high school
A song I played
To seduce my wife
I wonder how many babies
Were conceived because
Of this classic soul song.
Another classic song
What is hip
Which poised
An unanswered question
And inspired this triolet
What is love, tell me if you know
Love is what it is
Do you know what love is, Joe?
What is love, tell me if you know
And how can you make it grow?
Madness is what it does
What is love, tell me if you know
Love is what it is
The Tower of Power
No doubt
Will still be playing
That funky music
White boy
A hundred years
From now
For funk
Will never die
For once you get funk
In your soul baby
You can never go back
To boring vanilla
white boy music
because you got soul, now.
Because you got
That soul vaccination baby
And need to go
Down to the nightclub
And play that funky music
White boy
Until the day you die.
Based loosely on the classic Tower of Power Song, “What is hip?”
What Is Hip Lyrics
[Verse 1]
So ya wanna dump out yo’ trick bag
Ease on in a hip thang
But you ain’t exactly sure what is hip
So you started to let your hair grow
Spent big bucks on your wardrobe
Somehow, ya know there’s much more to the trip
[Chorus]
What is hip?
Tell me, tell me, if you think you know
What is hip?
If you’re hip
The question, “Will it show?”
You’re into a hip trip
Maybe hipper than hip
What is hip?
[Verse 2]
You became a part of a new breed
Been smoking’ only the best weed
Hangin’ out with the so-called “Hippie set.”
Seen in all the right places
Seen with just the right faces
You should be satisfied, but it ain’t quite right
[Chorus]
What is hip?
Tell me, tell me, if you think you know
What is hip?
If you’re hip
The question, “Will it show?”
You’re into a hip trip
Maybe hipper than hip
What is hip?
[Break]
Come on
[Refrain]
Hipness is. What it is
Hipness is. What it is
Hipness is. What it is
Sometimes hipness is, what it ain’t
You’re Still a Young Man, Baby
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
Down on my knees
Oh, heart in hand
I was accused of being too young
But I’m not so young
I could make you happy
I’m not a bad man
You’re too young to love (If you and I could be together)
You’re too young to love (I’ll never leave you alone baby)
You’re too young Ooo Ooo (No I won’t sweet lady)
Don’t waste your time
The damage is done
You see that you were wrong
You wake up wondering just
How well I’ve done
Well I’ve done alright
Yes there are some girls but you know
I dropped them on sight
Just for you
Because I love you
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
(Someday you’ll understand just what it means when a man
Comes to you with his little heart in his hands
Just to love you)
Don’t waste your time
You better listen to me
Sayin that I’m loving you yeah hey now baby tryin to tell
You that it’s you you you you you you you you talkin to you
Baby, I’ll never never never never I’ll never do you
No wrong no no lady if you would check my stuff out one time haha
Just to hold you, to squeeze you and all I wanna do is to
Get next to you and please please please you baby
See where I’m coming from!
Written by legendary sax players Emilio Castillo and Stephen Kupka, the song portrays a young man at the wrong end of a breakup. The situation is bleak because his lover pins the break-up on an age difference. In an interview with Songfacts Castillo said:
It’s based on a true story. I had a girlfriend that was six years older than me. I was 18, she was 24 and that’s actually what happened. She had kind of cut me loose because of the age difference thing and the whole plea in the story is the young guy’s saying, ‘I’m not too young, I’m not wasting my time and I do love you as a man can truly love a woman.’”
The song would go on to be the band’s first major hit defining their sound with a prominent horn section inspired by Curtis Mayfield:
“On that album, there’s a song called “A Woman’s Love” that starts with beautiful trumpets high. When we heard that we wanted to write a song with a great trumpet intro like that. – TowerofPower.com
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, we have our second two-for-Tuesday prompt.
For today’s prompt, we have our second two-for-Tuesday prompt, which means you get two prompts, and they are:
Write a form poem, and/or…
Write an anti-form poem.
I wrote the above “Ode to the Tower of Power” my favorite funk band.
How Will It End?
How will the madness end?
How will America wake up
From the madness all around us?
The former guy continues daily
Gaslighting the country
Beguiling us all
With his lies, his hatred
His evocation of fear
His calling for a civil war
Destruction and death
How will it end my friend?
That is anyone’s guess
But I doubt it will end
When the former guy
Meets his maker
For then, he will become
The martyr for his followers
Who believes he is the Messiah
perhaps he is just a con man
or maybe the antichrist
revelations warn us about
time will tell the tale
of how it will end
at the end of the Trump
will we find redemption?
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a Noun in a Location poem.
Small Things In Life Brings Great Pleasure
They say
That one should take
Pleasure in the small things in life
Things that matter
Like taking a walk
Enjoying the springtime
sunshine and flowers
With the love of your life
By your side
For today’s prompt, write a small poem. Yesterday, you were tasked with writing a smell poem, but today, we’re going small. The poem itself could be concise, but it could also be focused on something or someone small.
Many virtual connections, few real friends
In this hyper-connected era
Many people have thousands
Of virtual friends
But few have any real friends
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a connection poem.
Rule of Ten
The rule of ten
Applies to so many aspects
Of life
Writing
It goes like this
For every 100 people
Who wants to write a novel
Ten will finish it
Of those ten
Ten percent will publish it
Of those ten
Ten percent will
make some money
Of those ten
Ten percent
will make a living
Of those ten
Ten percent will
become a best-seller
In other words
In a land of 350 million people
There are probably only 3,500
bestselling authors
Drama
the rule of ten applies
to the drama world
only 2 percent
make a living
of the thousands of actors
only a few movie stars
music
of the thousands of musicians
only a few superstars
modeling
– only a few supermodels
to sports
only a few hundred NFL players
out of millions who played the game
to politics
only one president
out of thousands
who want to be
to Business
of the thousands
of busineses
only a few CEO’s
most small businesses
fail within one year
the rule of ten applies
to life in general
most people fail
in achieving their life goals
but one should not give up
because who knows
you could be the one
who wins in the end
despite the rule of ten.
Write a number poem
For today’s prompt, write a number poem. You can include a number in the title of the poem, or drop a number somewhere in the middle or end of the poem. Count sheep, a poem by numbers, or 10 ways to write a poem. There are several ways to come at this one.
Favorite Korean Food April 2023 Poems
I love Korean food
Fell in love with it
And all things Korean
Back in 1979
When I first went there
In the U.S. Peace Corps
Korean food is somewhat like
Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai
With some American influences as well
But it is all done
in a unique
Korean K Food style
Everything is cooked with special spices
A mixture of chili paste, garlic, fish sauce,
Onions, scallions, soy sauce,
salt, Tofu, Panjang sauce, and soju (liquor).
Often cooked with beef, chicken, clams, eggs, fish,
kimchi, intestines meat, mushrooms, mussels,
oysters and/or pork,
Every meal consists of rice, kimchi
(pickled vegetables usually cabbage)
The main entry is either beef, chicken, fish, or pork,
Rice
And multiple vegetable side dishes
Often Including western style salad
The entire meal
a feast for the eyes
Nose and mouth
with a delicious unique
aroma, fragrance,
Taste and texture
Uniquely Korean.
All washed down
with Korean beer, liquor (soju) or
rice wine or Western wine
My favorites include
Bulgogi chongsik (with all the side dishes) 불고기 총식
Kalbi chongsik (with all the side dishes) 칼비 총식
Calamari 오징어
Fried Chicken 닭 튀김
Chuncheon Chicken ribs 춘천 닭갈비
Dumplings 만두
Fried rice 볶음밥
High-rice카레라이스
Korean curry rice 카레라이스
Kimpop rice wrapped in seaweed 김팝
Korean soups 한국 수프
My favorite army stew 군대 스튜
Kalbitang (Beef rib soup) 칼비탕
Beef Turnip soup 쇠고기 순무 스프
Ginseng Chicken soup 인삼 치킨 수프
Kimchi stew 김치찌개
Tanjung stew 짱짱찌개
Bibimbap Mixed vegetables and rice with an egg on top비빔밥
Kalkooksu noodles 칼국수
Ramyeon 라면
Mushroom stew 버섯 스튜
Soondaeboo tofu stew 순대부두부찌개
Sashimi 생선회
Sushi
Dognas pork. Chicken of fish cutlet 돈까스
Fried mackerel 고등어 튀김
Octopus 낫지 often served live
Omrice korean omelet 오므라이스
Porridge 문어
Shrimp 새우
Write a smell poem
Movie Choices Writer’s Digest
Write a B movie poem
There are so many choices
To be made
When selecting a movie to watch
So many movies are B-1 minus
Barely worth finishing
Some are C
A few are D
And F movies
Just one example suffices
Ben and Willard
were the worst movies ever
It was an ode to rats
Who goes on a killing spree
As their master Willard
A deranged young man
Sends the rats out to kill
As one of Michael Jackson’s
The worst song
ever
plays in the background
April’s Fool Day Writer’s Digest
Write a foolish poem
On April Fool’s Day
It is appropriate
To think about
All the fake things around us
Especially deep fake videos
That are beginning
to circulate
All over the world
Unleashing a torrent
Of misinformation
Anticipation
Sam Adams
Got up early on a Sunday
Filled with anticipation
Today was the day
He would propose
To his dream girl
Whom he had met
Just days before
When she walked
Off a bus
Into his reality
He first met his wife
In a dream
He saw
the most beautiful woman
In the world
Talking to him
In a strange
Asian Language
He yelled out
“Who are you”
She faded away
As he fell to the ground
During a boring physics class
For eight long years
She haunted his dreams
Coming to him weekly
Then one day
He was teaching in Korea
When he had the last dream
She told him
“don’t worry, we’ll meet soon”
That night,
she walked off a bus
Out of his dreams
The following Sunday
After doing a long hike
He proposed to her
She said yes
Became his wife
Six weeks after
Entering his life.
The End
