April is National Poetry Month. That's why I chose Poetry for our word today.

I read in Cynthia R. Green's <span style="color:#444444;line-height:1.7;">blog </span><a style="line-height:1.7;" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cynthia-r-green-phd/national-poetry-month_b_1420368.html" target="_blank">"A Mad Obsession': Poetry on the Brain </a>that <span style="color:#444444;line-height:1.7;">poetry is a good way we can keep our brains challenged and vibrant. </span>

<span style="color:#444444;line-height:1.7;">To quote Dr. Green: "</span><a style="line-height:1.7;" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20811001" target="_hplink">Numerous studies have shown that intellectually engaging activities</a><span style="color:#444444;line-height:1.7;"> such as reading or writing poetry can be critical to maintaining our mental acuity and potentially reducing our risk for dementia over our lifetimes."</span>

Here's a Writing Prompt from Edie Melson's <a href="http://thewriteconversation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Write Conversation</a> to stimulate your brain today.

<a href="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/poetry-of-life.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2771" alt="Poetry of Life" src="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/poetry-of-life.jpg?w=500" width="500" height="526" /></a>

Now go read or write a poem.