listen - day 7

  

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 

April 1 - listening, listening

April 2 - clicking kitty

April 3 - spring morning 

April 4 - tea

April 5 - team

April 6 - from far away 

 

Here is poem 7 - 

 

 

Students - Yesterday, as I was out picking daffodils before today's snow...I heard the train whistle that I wrote about yesterday. I don't hear it too often, and so this felt like a little gift. Writing another outside sounds poem today has me thinking how different this month of listen poems would be if they all were written in winter or all about foods or all about animals. I may need to do this exercise regularly!

  

You have probably noticed the many s sounds in today's few lines. They found their way in, and I welcomed each one. You may have also noticed how the poem ends with shorter lines, almost like a funnel. Ending in this way directs a reader to slow down toward the end, to weight the ending, if you will. You may wish to try this sometime. Break up your last line and read it differently, with a wee pause at the end of each line. If you like how it sounds, keep it. If not, switch it up and keep playing! 

 

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. 

 

May whatever today's weather brings to you be sweet. 

 

xo,

a. 

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