Today is Poetry Friday, and Matt Forrest Esenwine is hosting at his Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme blog. Matt has a poignant story about Lee Bennett Hopkins and the rainbow anthology that is dedicated to him, the Dear One.

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On Saturday, I look forward to writing the next line in our progressive poem. I’ll share it Friday evening. My project for National Poetry Month is to write a poem daily with #Verselove. Here are the first few days of poems and prompts.

April 1, 2025 – The Verse Collector with Jennifer Guyor Jowett

To America, 2025
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
flames as it has flamed.
I hear America singing–
Believing what we don’t believe,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
God mend thine every flaw.

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In order of appearance: Emma Lazarus, Langston Hughes, William Carlos Williams, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Claude McKay, Katharine Lee Bates.

April 2, 2025 – When Spring Speaks in Tricubes with Leilya Pitre

Where have you
been, little
mama quail?

All winter–
stillness. Now
I recall

your faithful
nesting, your
darts and zips

April 3, 2025 – Borrowed Rhymes with Denise Krebs

Mi amiga, my friend,
Gracias por tu ayuda again
My skills are slowly creeping
I think of Spanish while I’m sleeping
You challenge my brain,
Our sweet friendship remains.

I used to study solo alone;
No ripples from the tiny stone.
Your knowledge lights my lamp,
brings me hope. I won’t damp-
en el entusiasmo’s light
Gracias, mi amiga, día y night

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(Rhyming words for my poem are from verses 1 and 2 of “The Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel.)

April 4, 2025 – Oh! The Places You’ll Go with Dave Wooley

often I stay here
delighted with my vacation
spot homestead

April 5, 2025 – Scars with Bryan Ripley Crandall

I hold a handful
of scars—literally.
These ones all
on my left hand–
our old dachshund bit
six-year-old me, thinking
I was our aggressive beagle.
(He felt bad afterwards.)
With high school friends, I
attempted to slice a frozen English
muffin for a late-night snack—
but sliced my thumb instead,
(best to wait for the thawing).
The college sleepover mango-cutting
while working on breakfast
for the late sleepers turned out bad,
lots of blood and even fainting
as I watched the blood pour into the sink.
In seventh grade, I sliced off the knuckle
of my thumb, and as a seventh grade
teacher, I sliced off my
index fingernail–those last two
with an X-Acto knife.

Now, along with age spots
and arthritic knuckles,
the scars are hardly visible.
They have settled in
and found a home
on this valued hand,
a home of mercy and
remembering, a home of
gratitude and love.

April 6, 2025 – Where I’m From, Again! with Stacey Joy 

I am from the post-war boxy and basic stucco, sides splitting with kids who seemed to marry just in time for the next ones

And my first apartment shared with an artist on Clark Avenue

And the windowed beauty with Terry and Christine

And the upstairs apartment where little Mia downstairs always wanted to play

And the hundred-year-old 16th Street house with a mouse and my new husband, who woke the neighbor steaming milk for his lattes

And the little ADU behind Mitch and Joyce’s where we made plum sauce from the best plum tree ever

And the wallpapered horror on Delaware Street in Iowa

And the freezing-water-pipe house on Arizona Avenue in Iowa

And our very first home purchase in Michigan where we planted a ginkgo

And the ranch house with a pool to survive the Phoenix summers

And the house that needed new windows (we realized after we bought it)

And the white-tiled, white-walled flat in Bahrain with dust and the call to prayer

And now, after a lifetime of homes, our little cabin continues daily calling out “home” to us.

April 7, 2025 – Villanelle on the Vine with Erica Johnson

Azaleas

A Villanelle

Take care of yourself for me
Your wounds draw a new start
Grace and nurture for you three

Both to give and receive is key
Good is here to fill your heart
Take care of yourself for me

Building onto the family tree
Is adding your own leafy art
Grace and nurture for you three

What will endure, you will see
On the route, these steps all part
Take care of yourself for me

With gentleness and care, just be
Many dewy dawnings dart
Grace and nurture for you three

Hard things you will not flee
The unnamed you will chart
Take care of yourself for me
Grace and nurture for you three

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A whole webpage about azaleas, my favorite spring flower.