2013 April PAD Challenge: Day 23

The April PAD (Poem-A-Day) Challenge is designed to help poets do one thing and one thing only: Write more poems! The process of revision may go on for weeks, months,…

The April PAD (Poem-A-Day) Challenge is designed to help poets do one thing and one thing only: Write more poems! The process of revision may go on for weeks, months, and years later, but this challenge is all about getting that first draft. Please poem along with us--either in the comments below or silently at home.

Today is a Two-for-Tuesday prompt. In fact, this is one I include with every challenge. Here are your options:

  • Write a love poem.
  • Write an anti-love poem.

Here's my attempt:

"love poem"

more today than ever before i feel
i love you spreading through me
as a disease infects a body

without worry or thought of consequences
for hours i stare at paper
trying to draw your face your hands

i want to paste them on billboards
distribute them in fliers
graffiti the entire city with your name

i want to say i love you & lay quiet
in bed listening to cars pass outside
too busy to bother us

more today than i ever before i feel
the impulse & the need
& the overwhelming want

on this gentle morning
love is a squirrel
& i am a hawk

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The 2013 Poet's Market has one purpose: Help poets publish their poems. The 2013 edition includes articles on the craft, business, and promotion of poetry. It offers 20 brand new poems by contemporary poets and hundreds of publishing opportunities with listings for book publishers, magazines and journals, contests and awards, grants, and more! Click to continue.

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Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer

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Quick note on commenting: Please always save a copy on your computer. There have been moments in the past in which comments have disappeared, and I don't want anyone to lose their work. Heck, I've lost some of my work here in the past, and it's not a great feeling. That said, commenting here is a lot of fun, especially in April. If you're completely new to the site, you'll be asked to register (don't worry, it's free), and your comments might not appear initially until I manually accept them. However, after that initial phase, your comments should appear without my help.

Want some more poeming fun? Check out these previous Poetic Asides posts:

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.