NPM 2022 - April 30

I can't believe it's the last day of April. Where has the month gone? I feel like I have so many more primary sources to share.

Today's poem is written to a photo of my brother and sister with our Semmelmayer cousins. This was taken Christmas day, 1960, five years before I came along. I missed some awfully good times. 

This poem is written as a choka. The choka is a Japanese form of unrhymed alternating five and seven syllable lines that ends with an extra seven syllable line. It can be any odd number of lines. You can learn more about this form at Poets Collective.

Here is a listing of all the poems I've written this month. I've also shared these poems on my Instagram, which is a good place to go to see them altogether. 

April 1 - Senryu to a photo of my grandmother as a child
April 2 - Haiku to my mother's recipe
April 3 - Dodoitsu to a war memento
April 4 - Choka to my mother's engagement announcement
April 5 - Gogyohka to the receipt for my mother's engagement ring
April 6 - Senryu to a student's drawing of my dad
April 7 - Tanka to a photo of my grandmother and her mother by a car
April 8 - Dodoitsu to a piece of V-mail from my great uncle 
April 9 - Senryu to a Christmas card from Paris during the war (1944)
April 10 - Somonka to a war letter to my father
April 11 - Dodoitsu to an early family portrait of my mother
April 12 - Senryu to a photo of WWII nose art 
April 13 - Senryu to a pair of postage stamps issued in 1934
April 14 - Somonka to a war letter to my father
April 15 - Senryu to a photo of my mother as a child 
April 16 - Senryu to an Easter card my grandmother sent my grandfather
April 17 - Senryu to an Easter card my grandfather sent my grandmother
April 18 - Tanka to a First Day Cover celebrating NATO's 10th anniversary (1959)
April 19 - Somonka to my grandparent's wedding photo 
April 20 - Dodoitsu to a list my grandfather made of the cars he owned 
April 21 - Haibun to a newspaper story about a car accident my father was in
April 22 - Tanka to a newspaper masthead from NAAS Jacksonville (1945) 
April 23 - Senryu to my grandfather's christening photo (1899)
April 24 - Senryu to a photo of my father and his parents at the beach (1929)
April 25 - Senryu to a letter my father's sister sent him during the way (1945)  
April 26 - Senryu to a button envelop (1950) 
April 27 - Sedoka to a photo of my grandfather and his twin sister 
April 28 - Senryu to my dad's navy photo 
April 29 - Dodoitsu to a family photo (1946)