Day 1 - How to write a 5W's Poem for National Poetry Month "30 Poems in 30 Days

Greetings and welcome to my 30 day poetry challenge – a poem a day for 30 days. It’s April 1st and this is NO April Fool's Joke - this is a CHALLENGE to write 30 Poems (of all kinds) in 30 Days!! Who is with me?

#NationalPoetryMonth

This is the fourth year that I have run this challenge on my blog. I am of the opinion that ANYONE can write poetry. If you haven’t the knack for creating flowing free verse, you can just follow some simple instructions that I will give to you every day and you will be amazed at the poetry you come up with. There are SO MANY KINDS OF POETRY – far more than 30 poetry forms. If you are new – welcome. If you have done the challenge in years past you may notice I will repeat certain poetry forms from year to year as they are fun ones, or they are favorites, etc. I will also try to include a few new ones each year.

Just a few things before we begin here in 2016 ~ Please join in as OFTEN as you can but if you miss a day, hey, you miss a day. No reason to give up. Life is BUSY!! We all can relate!

Some people like to share their poem of the day in the comments to this blog. Wonderful ~ we all enjoy reading them. Others may post their poem on their FB page or on their own blog – I do have one request – IF you put your poems on your own blog – please do NOT copy and paste my instructions here onto your blog. I have invested a lot of time and research over the years to create these posts. What you can do is to link to that day’s blog here at “Stephanie Says So” and tell your readers that they can come here and get directions to write their own poems. Thanks.

Also – all poems shared here, either by me or by those who post in the comments are automatically copyrighted by the writer. They are not to be used without permission of the writer – except as an example to someone you may be writing with or teaching, but always give attribution to the author, please.

I’ll be posting a different poetry form each day in the month of April and I’d love to have you join me. I also am creating a poetry challenge group on Facebook this year if that interests you.

Like I said, even if you think you can’t write poetry, I’d love to prove to you that you can!!! So many poems have actual patterns or forms to follow; some are almost "fill in the blank." 

We’re going to start out this year with a basic and simple poetry form. The 5 

W’s Poem

How do you write a 5 W’s Poem?

This is an obvious poem, but can be a sweet, silly, romantic, or a serious, etc., depending on what you fill in.

This poem answers the 5 W’s: Who, What, Where, When & Why.

You can be serious and heartfelt or light and silly by your choice of words.

These poems have no need to rhyme, nor are the lines any particular length or meter. So, it’s a pretty simple poetry form to follow:

Line 1: Who (or what) is the poem about? 
Line 2: What action is happening? 
Line 3: Where does the action take place? 
Line 4: When does the action take place? 
Line 5: Why does this action happen?

Here are few examples of mine:

Poems for National Poetry Month
Are being crafted and written down,
Everywhere and anywhere,
During the month of April,
Because our words beg to be given wings.

                  © 2015 Stephanie Abney

My precious grandchildren                    
Want to come play with me,
At grandma's house,
As often as they can,
Because I'm lots of fun to play with.

              © 2014 Stephanie Abney

Jim, my eternal companion
Takes good care of me,
Wherever we are,
At each opportunity,
Because he loves me.

                 © 2014 Stephanie Abney

Okay ~ YOUR TURN ~ Whatcha’ got?