"Nature's First Green is Gold..."

Ha! That line should have gotten all of my lit-geek friends' attention!! OK, so I wrote at the beginning of the month that I was gearing up for national Poetry Month and the "Poem-a-Day" challenge. Well, since April is just around the bend, I think it's time to lay down the rules of the Challenge.

1) Submit an original poem per day for the month of April.

2) Comments are appreciated, but not necessary.

3) If you HAVE to leave a comment, please don't let it be a "YAY!", or a smiley, or anything like that. If you like it, great, if you don't, fine...but if you're going to say that you do or don't like it, please tell me where/what it is that clicks or doesn't click with you. I know what I think of each work and why. Let's keep in mind, this is an exercise for ME. Sorry, but it's my blog, and I get to be a little selfish here.

4) If you feel so inclined to post something you've written, by all means, feel free to do so. If you want an opinion, tell me, and I'll be glad to furnish you with one (along with whys or why-nots) but you will otherwise probably just get a "hey, thanks for posting." Just, please, keep it PG-13...it's art, but this is a family show for the most part, ok? Remember, I have deleting power here. Oh - submitting once or twice does NOT require you to take up the same challenge. So don't feel like you're obligated. I am, but you're not. YES - it's that simple.

5) Topics are largely unlimited, but, as I said before, keep it reasonably clean. For all I care, you can write about a can of tomato soup - or just the label - or some verdant pasture somewhere...it matters not to me. There are no grades here, and no points off for spelling. Free verse, rhyme scheme, iambic pentameter (if you must)...that stuff doesn't matter.

6) This is supposed to be fun. It's poetry, and we're playing with sound and words here. So if somebody (me or someone else) decides to write something and it offends you, keep in mind that you're 1) probably not the target and 2) on my blog, so my paranoid/narcissistic tendencies always win here. If you want yours to win, you will just have to get your own blog. Its free and easy.

OK, with the rules stated fully, the timeframe set, you may consider yourself invited to come with me on this little venture. Participate as you will. Above all, I hope you enjoy the trip. I am excited and looking forward to it. I do not know what it will yield - perhaps something great, perhaps the knowledge that I should never try to make a living as a poet (assuming there are poets who make a good living simply by being poets) - I don't know. That's the point of the experiment.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

The Fat Kid.