April is National Poetry Month. There are all kinds of ways to get in on the celebration of that fact. My own personal contribution will be a repeat of last years Poem-A-Day Challenge at Robert Lee Brewer's blog (check out my cool completion badge here on this page!). Robert is posting a prompt every day during the month of April and the challenge is to complete at least a first draft of a poem for each day based on the prompt. Today's prompt was a poem about an origin. I couldn't decide between two ideas I had, so I posted the following two poems -

Origins

She called seeking answers.

Is this the man’s name?
Yes.
Is this his social security number?
Yes – but who are you?

I think I may bear
a resemblance to the man.
Maybe he and I share
a bit of DNA.

Who is the man?
I think I’d like to meet him.

She came seeking answers.

Do I look like him?
Yes.
Does he want to know me?
Yes.

The greater questions went
unanswered in the end.
Shared DNA aside
too many years had been lost.

------------------------------------------------------------

April Fool’s

From whence sprung
this strange custom -
of making a mockery
of fellow man?

Such obscure origins
and no clear indication
as to how it came
to be ingrained tradition.

Suggestions, opinions,
guesses and speculations
run rampant, but none
answer the question.

Perhaps we who consider
ourselves modern folk
and enlightened are in fact
the butt of the biggest joke.

If you aren't into writing a poem every day, but would instead like to read a poem every day (personally, I am all about both) you can check out Poets.org. Not only is that a great website every day of the year, but you can sign up for them to email a poem to you every day in April.

Don't even have time to read a poem a day? How about checking out Poems Out Loud. Here, as the name clearly suggests, you can listen to poems being read out loud by their authors or by former poet laureate Robert Pinsky.

Enjoy National Poetry Month and let me know how you are celebrating!