It's over. The last day of Poetry Month is here. It has been quite a ride. 

Write a poem that begins with or contains the following phrase. Fill in the blanks as necessary:


April ________ bring(or brings) May ________

Today's prompt is inspired, in part, by the Dear Me project and in part by the following video.

Write a letter poem to your past or future self. What would you say to yourself? What advice or wisdom would you share?

https://www.facebook.com/localgemspoetrypressBefore we get down to the prompt of the day, how is everyone doing? Today marks the halfway point of NaPoWriMo. Share your thoughts, experiences and poems with us on Facebook and in the comments. 

Today's prompt is inspired by one of our favorite other poetry websites: With Painted Words. Every month, With Painted Words posts a photo or painting that serves as a prompt for poets and fiction writers. The visual prompts can be quite powerful.

Today's prompt comes courtesy of Maria Illiou and is reproduced with her permission.

10 days in already! That's 1/3 of the challenge done. How is everyone doing?

Write a poem that either begins or ends with the following line:

Here it comes.

Google is a wonderful too that can be used for both good and evil. One entertaining feature Google offers is auto complete. When you start typing a word into Google, it attempts to complete your word or phrase with suggestions that are based off your browsing history (if any) and data about common searches.

Some of the phrases and words that come up are downright outrageous.

Open up a web browser and head over to google.com. Make sure you are not logged in to a google/gmail account before you start (bonus points for clearing your browsing history and deleting cookies too). Start typing a word or phrase you don't type very often. Let the auto complete suggestions guide you.

You may find some intriguing title ideas using this method.

You may have heard of heard of "Casual Friday" before. Casual Friday is for suckers! We prefer to celebrate the ending of the workweek with Formal Friday.

The sonnet is a widely popular poetic form with which most poets are at least remotely familiar. There are many different types of sonnets as the style has evolved since its early days.

F0r the longest time, a sonnet was expected to conform to a specific rhyme scheme and meter. The most common type of sonnet among poets writing in English is the Elizabethan sonnet or Shakespearean sonnet.

The Shakespearean sonnet is comprised of three quatrains and an ending couplet. It is written on Iambic Pentameter and follows rhyme scheme of a-b-a-b -c-d-c-d- e-f-e-f- g-g.

Many contemporary poets have written sonnets in blank verse.

An example of a Shakespearean sonnet.

The sestina is a poetic form that makes heavy use of repetition. It contains six stanzas of six lines and is concluded with a final three-line stanza. The words that end each line of the first stanza also end each line of each subsequent stanza, though their order is rotated each time.

An example of a sestina.

The Villanelle contains five tercets, or three-line stanzas followed by a quatrain. The villanelle contains two refrains and two different rhymes.

An example of a villanelle.

Write a Villanelle, Sestina, or Sonnet using highly formal language. Write said piece about a whimsical or even absurd topic.

Haiku is a popular poetic form originating in Japan. A haiku is a short poem comprised of three lines: One with five syllables and one with seven syllables followed by a final five-syllable line.

A haiku is traditionally about nature and presents a juxtaposition between two conflicting images in nature. 

The haiku form has become popular among poets of the English language and has become somewhat westernized.

English speaking poets have "westernized" the haiku form. It's time to take that a step further:

Write a haiku with an old west/wild west theme. It could be a serious, historical piece or a histrionic spaghetti (um, Yakisoba) western piece, as long as it's a haiku with a western theme.

One fun exercise to help get the creative juices flowing is to pick a few unrelated words and try to write a poem including all of those words. It can be fun to see what creative ways you can fit them into a poem.

Write a poem which includes the following ten words:

"He who hesitates is lost. He who procrastinates is foolish"
-Neddard Z. Stever

We've been thinking about it for years. We've been putting off talking about it for quite some time now. You've waited long enough (or at least we have). 

All of us here at Local Gems have wanted to announce a procrastination anthology for years and we're finally talking about it again. More information will be coming soon.

Write a poem that addresses the important topic of procrastination. No meta-procrastination poems please! Poems about procrastinating to write themselves are too paradoxical for this prompt!

Write a poem that either begins or ends with the following phrase:

Happy April, happy writing, and good luck to those of you registered for our chapbook contest.