As I strive to become a better listener and to connect more with my
sense of hearing, National Poetry Month 2026 finds me writing daily,
handwritten, index card poems inspired by sounds and listening.. I have begun a new
notebook to collect the sounds I notice throughout the month, and I will
reflect on them in short poems. My ears - and my heart - are open wide.
I invite you to join me in this project, on any of my projects from the past 16 years,
or on a project of your very own. To do so, simply write a
poem each day of April in any way you wish. Share or don't share, as
you wish. Your poems are your poems. Your projects are your projects.
And if you wish learn a bit more about writing poetry, I welcome you to
the short lessons in the tab above: COAXING POEMS VIDEOS - 2024.
National Poetry Month 2026 Poems
Here is poem 29 -
Students - Poets use repetition in many ways: repeating words, whole lines, rhyming sounds, initial consonants, and even vowel sounds. You will hear that each short line of today's poem includes a word with the short u sound: mumble, plush, tumble, snug. So even though the poem does not rhyme, these vowels hold the lines together with a type of invisible glue. The repetition of vowel sounds in a poem is called assonance.
When I am at my best in writing, I carefully review each word of a poem, asking "Is this the just-right word?" Sometimes I do not realize that a word is not-just-right until much later, when I am eating a meal or taking a walk. At these times, my fingers get itching to return to the writing to make it more just-right.
Remember this - you can think about your poems when you are sitting with pencil or computer in hand...and you can also think about your poems when you are out and about in the world of your life. Poetry can become a secret that you carry as you do every thing you do.
Tomorrow is Poem in Your Pocket Day, so if you have not done so yet, you may wish to choose a poem to carry in your pocket and share tomorrow. I wrote a book illustrated by Emma Virján, to celebrate this day. Learn about If This Bird Had Pockets: A Poem in Your Pocket Day Celebration HERE.
To
learn about many of the wonderful National Poetry Month projects
happening online this April, visit the generous Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup.
Tomorrow is the last day of National Poetry Month, but it is not the last day for us to write and share poems together. I have been here since 2010, and I do not plan to go anywhere anytime soon.
xo,
a.
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