The month of April is known as National Poetry Month, Mrs. Lombardi, a NASH GOAL teacher, is hosting the 30 Days of Poetry and Art Challenge. Each day, Lombardi provides a topic and prompts to currently 36 NASH students who have risen to this year’s challenge. The expected goal is to write one poem (or produce one piece of visual art) a day and preferably share it with Mrs. Lombardi.
“This is my 12th year running the 30-Day Poetry Challenge at NASH,” said Lombardi, who spent the first half of her career at NASH teaching English.
Until this year, the annual challenge consisted exclusively of poetry.
“Adding the ‘30 Days of Art’ is a new twist this year,” Lombardi said. “Last summer, I participated in an Educator Residency at the Carnegie Museum of Art, and I had the great privilege to learn from art educators there about many works from their permanent collection. I was starting to run dry with new ideas for poetry prompts, so I used the art to inspire me.”
This year, Lombardi was able to capture the interest of many juniors and seniors at NASH.
“At the time there are 36 people signed up to participate.,” Lombardi said. “However, more students have been joining each day.”
One of those students is Pavit Saini, a senior at NASH.
“I found out about this challenge through GOAL last year, and I thought it would be a fun way to practice creative writing since I wasn’t doing enough of that in school,” he said.
Although Saini enjoys the challenge, he does not expect it to be easy.
“I think that when I find a prompt I don’t know how to immediately answer, I end up writing my best work because it makes me think a lot more,” he said. “The creativity these prompts generate is super helpful for writing in other areas, whether it be for English class, college admissions essays, or otherwise.”
Sri Sai Krishnakumar, a senior at NASH, is also participating in Lombardi’s challenge.
“Before I participated in this challenge, I found it difficult to actually set aside time to write poems or make and appreciate art,” she said, “but now, I have the challenge as a reminder to sit down and put effort into creating. Doing this consistently helped me appreciate poetry and art even more, and it made me get more in touch with my thoughts. It felt like creative journaling, and I feel like it’s something I can benefit from at any point of my life.”
Krishnakumar said that another enjoyable aspect of the month-long challenge is its surprisingly social nature.
“Another thing I love about this challenge is getting support and encouragement from those around me,” she said. “I’m not a part of the Open Gallery [a site available to students participating in the 30-day challenge]. which allows participants to see each other’s work, but I have shared my work with people in my life. Their reactions and feedback are such a motivation boost, and this makes me even more excited to write another poem the next day. It makes me feel happy to see other people appreciate the work that I put so much of myself into.”
Though Krishnakumar hasn’t written much, she is satisfied with her work.
“I’ve written around four poems so far this month,” she said. “ I think I’m focusing more on poetry this time, but I do hope to get into creating a nonverbal piece of art in the future. I actually wrote a poem about a piece of art (Claude Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise”), and it’s the one I’m the most proud of. I haven’t been as consistent as I’d like to be, but I’m glad that I actually tried writing some. I hope to keep writing and creating as the month progresses, and even beyond National Poetry Month.”
Another student participant is Maddox Rathmell, a senior at NASH who intend to major in Screenwriting at Point Park University next year.
“The prompts give me a chance to exercise my writing,” he said. “I am able to improve my flow and add depth to my meaning.”
******
Here are three original NASH poems written earlier this month. Check them out!
