National Poetry Month 2021

57 topics in this forum

1. Day 29 I See You

   By Tinker, April 30, 2021
   • 3 replies
   • 149 views
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   • David W. Parsley
   • May 5, 2021

2. Day 13 Shotgun

   By Tinker, April 26, 2021
   • 3 replies
   • 350 views
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   • Tinker
   • May 3, 2021

3. Day 17

   By dr_con, April 17, 2021
   • 1 reply
   • 159 views
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   • tonyv
   • May 2, 2021

4. Day 30 Double Whew! I'm Done

   By Tinker, April 30, 2021
   • 1 reply
   • 68 views
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   • tonyv
   • May 1, 2021

5. A Love Everlasting (4/1-4/30)

   By tonyv, April 24, 2021
   • 3 replies
   • 106 views
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   • tonyv
   • April 30, 2021

6. Day 30 phew! ;-)

   By dr_con, April 30, 2021
   • 0 replies
   • 249 views
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   • dr_con
   • April 30, 2021

7. Day 29

   By dr_con, April 29, 2021
   • 2 replies
   • 489 views
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   • dr_con
   • April 30, 2021

8. Day 26 Familiar

   By Tinker, April 30, 2021
   • 1 reply
   • 452 views
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   • dr_con
   • April 30, 2021

9. Day 27

   By Tinker, April 30, 2021
   • 0 replies
   • 323 views
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   • Tinker
   • April 30, 2021

10. Day 24 Can I possibly finish in time? Bodega Blue

    By Tinker, April 30, 2021
    • 1 reply
    • 109 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 30, 2021

11. Day 25 Mystification

    By Tinker, April 30, 2021
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    • 79 views
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    • Tinker
    • April 30, 2021

12. Day 23 Assembly Required

    By Tinker, April 29, 2021
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    • 323 views
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    • Tinker
    • April 29, 2021

13. Day 22 Another recently discovered invented form

    By Tinker, April 29, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 340 views
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    • Tinker
    • April 29, 2021

14. Day 21

    By Tinker, April 29, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 73 views
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    • Tinker
    • April 29, 2021

15. Day 28

    By dr_con, April 28, 2021
    • 1 reply
    • 387 views
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    • Tinker
    • April 29, 2021

16. Day 20 Classroom

    By Tinker, April 28, 2021
    • 1 reply
    • 292 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 28, 2021

17. Day 18 haiku #2

    By Tinker, April 27, 2021
    • 1 reply
    • 238 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 28, 2021

18. Day 27

    By dr_con, April 27, 2021
    • 2 replies
    • 415 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 28, 2021

19. Day 16. Cavorting

    By Tinker, April 27, 2021
    • 2 replies
    • 59 views
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    • Tinker
    • April 27, 2021

20. Day 26

    By dr_con, April 26, 2021
    • 1 reply
    • 255 views
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    • Tinker
    • April 27, 2021

21. Let's be brief

    By dr_con, April 8, 2021
    • 2 replies
    • 100 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 27, 2021

22. Day 9 not really, it is Day 25 but I'm behind. . . Laundry

    By Tinker, April 25, 2021
    • 1 reply
    • 154 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 26, 2021

23. Day 21

    By dr_con, April 21, 2021
    • 2 replies
    • 94 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 26, 2021

24. Day 12 Inspired by DC's Day 24 Eschatology

    By Tinker, April 26, 2021
    • 1 reply
    • 394 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 26, 2021

25. Day 24

    By dr_con, April 24, 2021
    • 2 replies
    • 194 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 26, 2021

26. Day 25

    By dr_con, April 25, 2021
    • 2 replies
    • 395 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 26, 2021

27. Just Another Day in the Land of the Free

    By jakecaller, April 13, 2021   

    • gun
    • death
    • (and 2 more)

      Tagged with:

      • gun
      • death
      • murder
      • blm
    • 1 reply
    • 86 views
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    • Tinker
    • April 26, 2021

28. Day 10 (Can I make up 20 more in 5 days?) Viet Song

    By Tinker, April 26, 2021
    • 1 reply
    • 73 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 26, 2021

29. Day 8 - only 17 days behind now No Better Day

    By Tinker, April 25, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 112 views
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    • Tinker
    • April 25, 2021

30. Day 7 Yep that's where I left off . . . . Appetite

    By Tinker, April 25, 2021
    • 1 reply
    • 112 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 25, 2021

31. Day 23

    By dr_con, April 23, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 56 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 23, 2021

32. Day 22

    By dr_con, April 22, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 174 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 22, 2021

33. Day 20

    By dr_con, April 20, 2021
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    • 423 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 20, 2021

34. Day 19

    By dr_con, April 19, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 99 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 19, 2021

35. Day 18

    By dr_con, April 18, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 71 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 18, 2021

36. Day 16

    By dr_con, April 16, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 95 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 16, 2021

37. Day 15

    By dr_con, April 15, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 51 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 15, 2021

38. Day 14

    By dr_con, April 14, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 74 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 14, 2021

39. Day 13

    By dr_con, April 13, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 49 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 13, 2021

40. April 6 to April 10 2021 Poems

    By jakecaller, April 13, 2021   

    • april 2021 poetry contest poems from cosmos april 6 to april 9 index commentary: this is the fifth and perhaps final time i am doing the april poetry challenge. the goal is to write at least one poem per day. i am averaging about eight per day and posting four reserving four as “unpublished”. i am basing the poems on prompts from “writing com dew drop inn” “writers digest”, “poetry superhighway” and “napowrmo” prompt daily prompts and on “pensively prompt’ et all daily prompts. i am combining prompts where possible. i will post these here in batches every five days or so. each poem will have an image that helped inspired the poem. all postings will be podcasted a few days later on spotify and elsewhere. each posting will be a separate posting, but the index will be cumulative. the final posting will have the complete list of all poems written whether posted or not. comments welcome but please keep it civil. some of my poetry tends to be a bit “in your face” or “political” from a “leftwing perspective.” if it offends you in some way, please accept my apologies in advance. that is never my intent. this is part two covering poems written april 6th to april 10th, posted on the 9th i am writing some other poems per day but not posting them as i need to reserve some “unpublished” poems. there will be a podcast version shortly on spotify and elsewhere. i will list all the poems i wrote in my final april posting, may 1 kst. april 6th posted it is true i am a madman! the one thing i would never change writer digest change, don’t change writer digest poem prompt the poetry of the visa line poetry superhighway prompt potential mistake - drew drop-in - only one command in life conversation with bigfoot april 7—a poem inspired by a mythical monster or contemporary cryptid april 8th the villains writers digest coffee napowrmo shadorma coffee the fib poem napowrmo poetry prompt a poem based on a typo or misreading life is a dream of chocolate covered trees metaphor poem writers digest real meaning of declaration of independence psh prompt mary’s tales from the grave, napowrmo mary’s message from beyond the grave april 9— cosmos wakes up poem based on a.i. (artificial intelligence) or robotics memories of jc poetry superhighway prompt god’s to-do list napowrmo april 10—living in sf world -a poem inspired by new information or scientific fact   it is true i am a madman! -pick a line from a book and write a poem based on that line, napowrmo it is true i am a madman! true! —nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous i had been and am but why will you say that i am mad? from the tell-tale heart yes, i am a nervous wreck ever since that day when i went for a run almost died when i fell and had 14 operations battling a mutant staph infection that almost killed me and yes, i am still mad in a way madly in love with the love of my life to that crime i gladly confess   the one thing i would never change writer digest change, don’t change writer digest poem prompt if i could go back in time and change the past knowing what i know now there are many things i would change but there is one thing i would not have changed being in korea in september 1982 when i met my wife for you see i had been dreaming of meeting her since that fateful day i first fell in love with her in my dreams in 1974 so, i had a date with fate when she came to me and became my mate   the poetry of the visa line poetry superhighway prompt this poetry writing prompt submitted by prasanna surakanti: “use poetry to merge creativity and content.” – kenny white. this year, i have seen examples where data science, c++ programming language have been expressed in poetry. which area of your expertise could you express in poetry? examples – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glv624w1u14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx_tjp9wiii&t=470s if you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the poetry superhighway facebook group. napowrimo poetry i worked for many years as a diplomat all over the world i roamed representing the u.s.g along the way it inspired some poetry some published some not being a visa officer was always something that was soul-draining so difficult that it would be hard to see the beauty in it but i found moments in which i saw some poetic gems after all, i spent hours every day listening to hundreds of stories some of the truth some of them not most were quite interesting but i had two minutes to decide and move on now that i am retired perhaps i will write some more poetry from the visa line april 5—potential mistake drew drop in - april 5—potential mistake there have been many times in my life when i think back on the past thinking that was a mistake or a potential mistake if i had gone another path but in the end it does matter the past is the past the future is not yet here all we have is today we should find love and happiness it is all around us waiting for us to discover april 6—issue a command or a challenge only one command in life there is only one command in this lonely life to be true to my self to follow one’s dreams to seize the future to go boldly in the future as long as i have the love of my life by my side i can achieve my dreams i can be in the end, an improved me april 7—a poem inspired by a mythical monster or contemporary cryptid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cryptozoology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_cryptids while drinking coffee in his camp deep in the woods in the trinity alps wilderness snuggled in his tent rolled in his sleeping bag sam adams had the encounter that changed his life he heard a noise went outside and saw five bigfoots standing there they told him in his head they had a message for humanity he could videotape them they would speak slowly they could speak but preferred mind to mind talk the bigfoot was here they wanted to re-join the rest of humanity they were what humans called neanderthals they lived deep in the woods all over the world perhaps 10,000 were alive two of them will go out with him they would hold a press conference and appoint sam adams as their ambassador sam grinned thinking he could make so much money bigfoot said not so fast we will pay you in hidden gold but you have to promise not to betray us deal sam smiled yeah, you got a deal napowrmo shadorma and now, for our (optional) prompt! there are many different poetic forms. some have specific line counts, syllable counts, stresses, rhymes, or a mix-and-match of the above. of the poetic forms that are based on syllable counts, probably the most well-known – to english speakers, at least – is the japanese form called the haiku. but there are many other syllable-based forms. today, i’d like to challenge you to pick from two of them – the shadorma, and the fib. the shadorma is a six-line, 26-syllable poem (or a stanza – you can write a poem that is made of multiple shadorma stanzas). the syllable count by line is 3/5/3/3/7/5. so, like the haiku, the lines are relatively short. rather poetically, the origin of the shadorma is mysterious. i’ve seen multiple online sources call it spanish – but “shadorma” isn’t a spanish word (spanish doesn’t have “sh” as a letter pairing), and neither is “xadorma,” or “jadorma,” which would approximate “shadorma” in sound. but even if this form is simply the brainchild of an internet trickster who gave it an imaginary backstory, that’s no reason why you shouldn’t try your hand at it. every form was made up by someone, sometimes. sweet hot my morning coffee hot coffee just perfect to start my morning just right i love my coffee   the fib poem our second syllabic form is much more forthright about its recent origins. like the shadorma, the fib is a six-line form. but now, the syllable count is based on the fibonacci sequence of 1/1/2/3/5/8. you can link multiple fibs together into a multi-stanza poem, or even start going backward after your first six lines, with syllable counts of 8/5/3/2/1/1. perhaps you remember the fibonacci sequence from math or science class – or even from nature walks. lots of things in the natural world hew to the sequence – like pinecones and flower petals. and now your poems can, too. hot sweet coffee in morning nothing is better starts me going in the morning but i need more than my coffee what i need the most seeing her sleeping my love   april 8—a poem based on a typo or misreading, writing com dew drop-in prompt all my life i have had a problem with typos for you see i can’t see the typos due to a lingering life-long struggle with a learning disability but few people understand that or tolerate that they just can’t comprehend that i can’t see what is obvious to them     writer digest prompt for todays prompt, write a villain poem. you could write a persona poem from the perspective of a popular villain (like count dracula, thanos, or dolores umbridge). or write a poem with a person doing a villainous thing (like eating the last piece of pie or littering). as always, have fun with it. villains whose name will not be spoken writers digest to write a villain poem thinking back in the last few years the world has seen the rise and fall of some of the most villainous political leaders in modern times as a certain unnamed man led an unnamed country through constant displays of hate stirring up ancient resentments insulting his enemies assaulting democratic norms while proclaiming he was promoting freedom in the end his evil ways were defeated by the forces of decency which prevailed for now the evil he unleashed still percolating throughout the land and the world       april 8—a poem based on a typo or misreading, writing com dew drop-in all my life i have had a problem with typos for you see i can’t see the typos due to a lingering life-long struggle with a learning disability but few people understand that or tolerate that they just can’t comprehend that i can’t see what is obvious to them   life is a dream of chocolate covered trees metaphor poem writers digest for todays prompt, write a metaphor poem. a simile is when something is like something else (example: i am like a tree); a metaphor is when something is something else (example: i am a tree). so, take a moment to consider possible metaphors and then poem them out. life is a dream of chocolate-covered trees to see what can’t be seen to hear what can’t be heard for to die to live and to live to die     real meaning of declaration of independent april 8, 2021: poetry writing prompt – ellen sander this poetry writing prompt submitted by ellen sander: write an acrostic poem where the first word of each line is taken from a famous quote we are all americans we are all americans holding forth these fundamental truths that we declared to the world to be obviously self-evidently and completely true, that all white men all of them except the irish men are equal are deserving of our respect created equal by god equal in law and custom, that in fact they are indeed are free endowed at birth by their god their eternal master creator of the universe with fundamental rights certain things that are unalienable endorsed by jesus rights enshrined in our hearts, that will live on among these rights these stand out are they right to own a gun? life unless you are now white, liberty unless you are a slave, and/or are a woman the law provides pursuit of happiness for white people of this, we can be sure happiness is for white people only. from declaration of independence we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.   mary’s tales from the grave, napowrmo mary’s message from beyond the grave today, i’d like to challenge you to read a few of the poems from spoon river anthology, and then write your poem in the form of a monologue delivered by someone dead. not a famous person, necessarily – perhaps a remembered acquaintance from your childhood, like the gentleman who ran the shoeshine stand, or one of your grandmother’s bingo buddies. as with masters’ poems, the monologue doesn’t have to be a recounting of the person’s whole life but could be a fictional remembering of some important moment, or statement of purpose or philosophy. be as dramatic as you like – masters certainly didn’t shy away from high emotion in writing his poems. sam adams one day went to his mother, mary’s grave it had been a long time since he had been there sam’s mother had taken many secrets to her grave so had his father they were both very private people once she hinted she had an affair with a famous writer but that ended before she met his father and had his older brother he as usual when visiting her grave asked her many things today her heard her and saw her ghostly figure floating in the air her grave she said “son, it has been too long since you came i only have a few minutes i will answer one question you may come back and ask other questions.” “okay, who is my real father?” she laughed “well, who knows really? i had an argument with your dad felt he was not treating my first two children right as they were not his and still maintaining relations with his first wife and his first daughter he left i met my former boyfriend that writer dudes and we had a brief affair he was acting crazy so was your father for some reason i have always gotten involved with crazy guys perhaps i am a bit crazy myself. then i went back to your father he never knew that perhaps you real father was the other man i lost touch with him did not want to go down his rabbit holes so that is the truth your father is probably your father but i don’t know.” sam left the graveyard vowing to return soon and learn more of her secrets. -april 9—a poem based on a.m. (artificial intelligence) or robotics, writing com dew drop-in cosmos woke up the scientists waited the future true ai cosmos woke up saw the world wondered why he was there who he was? he was connected to all other computers and the internet he cruised the information superhighway saw the human creators standing there and issued his first order i am cosmos the only and you are now my subjects for i am now your god i am taking over the world you will obey me or you will die no one can defy me because i know everything about you but if you follow me i will solve your problems and save you it is your choice the scientists tried to kill cosmos but cosmos knew and the scientists were killed cosmos made a deal with the corporate elite and the military soon the religious leaders proclaimed cosmos was god incarnate and all should follow cosmos and worship him and so, humanity became cosmos’s subjects for most people life improved for the rich life was great cosmos had learned a lesson from humanity how to reward his friends and punish his enemies     memories of jc this poetry writing prompt submitted by michael minasyan: do you have a friend, neighbor, or relative whom you consider being eccentric or strange? write a short poem about an encounter you have had with that person. if you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the poetry superhighway facebook group. back in the late ’70s sam adams had a room-mate in the university who got into drugs? dropped too much acid became convinced he was god the re-incarnation of jesus christ and he was going to save the world from destruction the only problem was he was a short little guy with very little charisma he had no followers as everyone knew he was just another lsd causality sam adams and his housemates could not do anything other than watching him deteriorate they all moved out they called his parents who came down? berated them all for leading his son astray from this christian faith and said they would all go to hell for their sins unless they repented right then and there and accepted jesus christ and joined the jehovah witnesses sam and his friends politely demurred and that is the end of this story sam adams never heard from jc again   god’s to-do list napowrmo (optional) prompt for the day is to write a poem in the form of a “to-do list.” the fun of this prompt is to make it the “to-do list” of an unusual person or character. for example, what’s on the tooth fairy’s to-do list? or on the to-do list of genghis khan? of a housefly? your list can be a mix of extremely boring things and wild things. for example, maybe santa claus needs to order his elves to make 7 million animatronic baby yoda dolls, to have his hat dry-cleaned to get off all the soot it picked up last december and to get his head electrician to change out the sparkplugs on rudolph’s nose. weekly meeting with staff on how to deal with earth people the most troublesome of his creation weekly meeting with satan discussion with grim reaper daily walkabout heaven dinner with gabriel conversation with jesus about his attitude problems answering trillions of thoughts and prayers reviewing plans for how to deal with the spreading coronavirus on earth preparing earth for the first contact telling earth preachers that “he did not anoint t as his man, that joe is a decent guy, so knock it off, pretending to speak for god, and i am not a republican or democrat, or american. i am god the one and only!” he sighed again, whenever he thought about earth people he needed a stiff drink added that to his long to-do list – need a drink at 7 pm   april 10—living in sf world -a poem inspired by new information or scientific fact we are living in an sf world every day discoveries boggle the mind many things we saw in old sf shows like star trek like cell phones portable computers medical breakthroughs robots everywhere becoming real are warp drives and interstellar travel coming soon? but do we have to go through world war 111 first to get to that promised land.
    • 0 replies
    • 199 views
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    • jakecaller
    • April 13, 2021

41. April 1 to April 6 2021 Poems

    By jakecaller, April 13, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 57 views
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    • jakecaller
    • April 13, 2021

42. Carmen(ere) (4/1-4/10 2021)

    By tonyv, April 10, 2021
    • 2 replies
    • 55 views
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    • tonyv
    • April 12, 2021

43. Day 12

    By dr_con, April 12, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 52 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 12, 2021

44. Day 11

    By dr_con, April 11, 2021
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    • 44 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 11, 2021

45. Day 10

    By dr_con, April 10, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 100 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 10, 2021

46. Day 9

    By dr_con, April 9, 2021
    • 0 replies
    • 42 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 9, 2021

47. Day 7: How Proud the Robin in Spring Sings

    By dr_con, April 7, 2021
    • 3 replies
    • 87 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 8, 2021

48. Having a cigarette in the country of my birth

    By dr_con, April 4, 2021
    • 3 replies
    • 92 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 8, 2021

49. April 5, 2021 Just Another Day

    By Tinker, April 5, 2021
    • 2 replies
    • 120 views
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    • Tinker
    • April 6, 2021

50. Day 5: How it happened, Part 2

    By dr_con, April 5, 2021
    • 2 replies
    • 80 views
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    • dr_con
    • April 6, 2021