National Poetry Month for April 2026 Begins!

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Edna St. Vincent Millay at Work credit https://millay.org/

Poet Voice here, aka Jacquelyn Markham, poet. Welcome back to Poet Voice!!

Already participating in the Stafford Challenge (writing a poem a day all year), I am now overlapping with National Poetry Month, or as we know at Napowrimo.net, it is actually Na/GloPoWriMo (National/Global Poetry Writing Month)! Poets participate from all over the globe! Won’t you join us?

Napowrimo.net founder Maureen Thorson explains: “Each day, you’ll find here a new featured participant and daily resource. We’ll also have an optional daily prompt for those of you who find yourself in need of a little inspiration (or just like the additional challenge).” There are other sites, too, that provide prompts or you can simply begin on your own! Thank you Maureen (who founded Napowrimo in 2003!!) for your dedication to poets and National Poetry Month!

Happy 30th birthday to National Poetry Month, launched in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets! Below is this year’s poster, graced with words by our current U. S. Poet Laureate, Arthur Sze.

Rather than sharing my newly created poem from today, I am sharing a poem I wrote in another year during National Poetry Month.

“Taste of Sun: Eriobotrya japonica” was published by Petigru Review. Proof Poem-a-day can be productive! Enjoy!

https://petigrureview.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/taste-of-sun-eriobotrya-japonica-markham/

Queen of the Night & Vision Plan

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Queen of the Night

Hello dear Poet Voice readers,

I suppose you may be thinking that Poet Voice indulged in a rather long sabattical after we buttoned up April 2025 Poem-a-day challenge. Though I haven’t been totally resting on my laurels, I have taken a bit of a break from blogging—longer than I had really intended! I haven’t given up my creative life, however, and even wrote some short verses, one that I have shared with you now, “Queen of the Night.” Of course, I was flower-dedicated and watched the night long blooming of the Epiphyllum oxypetalum or commonly called “Queen of the Night.”

Remember that Vision Plan we started two years ago? With the Mercury Retrograde return, it seems appropriate to revisit our Vision Plans.

Now, as we are nearing that cross quarter point between summer and fall, often called Lammas (in the northern/western hemisphere of the US), there is still plenty of hot weather throughout many parts of the world. I don’t know about you, but climate change is never far from my mind!  Despite the heat, however, we can focus on our creativity if we are one of those folks lucky enough to dodge the heat inside an air conditioned home. So, let’s return to our Vision Plan!  Also, may I ask that you focus on world peace and kindness every day, so our collective energy can manifest them in our own lives and beyond.

Thank you! And, before we wrap-up July and spin around August, let us take time to check the short-term goals we set for ourselves some time ago in our personal Vision Plans. We are still experiencing Mercury Retrograde throughout the middle of August, so it is a good time to **revisit** our plans.

To refresh our memories, below is a quick review and step-by-step process of creating a Vision Plan:

Step 1: Write your vision statement. Your vision statement is futuristic and should inspire you. Mine is only three sentences long and I’ve written it in gold ink at the top of a new page in my journal.

Step 2: Next, write your mission statement which differs from but grows out of your vision statement. There are many resources on this process of writing a mission statement (search Strategic Plan) but think simply. What is it you do or want to do everyday? Focus on the present. Keep it brief.

Step 3: Now, short term goals that fit within your vision and your mission. I settled on five, but worked through several pages of writing to see the difference in the goals and the tasks it would take to accomplish them. You could focus on three, or more if you are energetic, but I suggest no more than seven. Can some of the short term goals be moved to long term goals, for example?

Step 4: The details, the tasks, the baby steps! What tasks will be needed to meet these goals? (You can break up tasks to smaller baby steps, too.)

Step 5:  Create a timeline and in January 2026, review and revise for the new year!

Now that  you have carved out the details of your Vision Plan, enjoy the full moon in Aquarius (which is also Lunar Lammas).  Collaborate and network while the moon is full in Aquarius.  And always, always, celebrate the fullness and beauty of the full moon and your own accomplishments coming to fruition over time, not unlike the Queen of the Night! 

            And remember to celebrate your vision plan for the creativity in your life!

Nothing New Under the Sun (Day 30)

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An early rendition of “Deep Purple” –
ca. 1939

For Day 30 PAD 2025, the final day of poem-a-day challenge, Maureen challenge us to “write a poem that also describes different times in which we have heard the same band or piece of music across our lifetimes.” (NaPoWriMo.net)

It was a difficult poem to write for many reasons, but here it is, a poem dedicated to my mother whose birthday is tomorrow.

Music for Weddings in the Wild (Day 28)

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David Adickes”Flutist with Bird” 1975 courtesy of https://www.1stdibs.com/art/painting

Today’s challenge was “to write a poem that involves music at a ceremony or event of some kind.” Click (NaPoWriMo) for all the details about the Day 28 prompt. Only two more days of the poem-a-day challenge and National Poetry Month!

And here’s my offering for the Day 28 challenge about music at a ceremony. In this case, my own experiences playing music for weddings!

Music for Weddings in the Wild

These lovers with their visions!

They dream up weddings on the beach,

weddings in the meadow,

weddings on the river—but

mother nature is filled with surprises!

The pastor inhaled a gnat & she choked

on the vows one May evening on the shore

at sundown. Repellent saturated netting

draped the brim of my straw hat. Still,

I resisted inhaling deeply before

a long passage though Mendelsohn had imagined it

played with fluidity, though my notation

on the music said “breathe!”

Guests from Wisconsin swatted, squirmed, &

prayed for a breeze from the shore,

but none forthcoming as the Atlantic

lapped the sand like water on the edge of a

docile pond. Another dream wedding

of a different surprise. Guest chairs

faced west on a hot afternoon

in a grassy field. All held back

from folding chairs in a row that

beckoned to them but the flutist! I played

to the hot orange sinking sun—hoping

the piper piping would bring them

to their seats, and it would be time

for champagne!

Jacquelyn Markham © 2025 (Day 28)

poet/flutist outdoors

There’s Always Satie (Day 24)

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Day 24 PAD 2025 NapoWriMo’s prompt for today brought to mind a rather dissonant duet from days past. I think you will see what I mean.

And the challenge is to write a poem that involves people making music together, and that references – with a lyric or line – a song or poem that is important to you.

Here’s my April 24 offering amidst a busy, busy National Poetry Month!

There’s Always Satie

I’m forever blowing bubbles,

blowing bubbles in the air.

My mother loved the song & I love

to tootle the tune on my flute!

“They fly so high, nearly reach the sky!”

And you never tire of Thelonious Monk’s

dissonant chords on your Rhodes &

disdain my bubbles. Swear my flute plays

“Round Midnight” best.

I remember those days with

“Pretty bubbles in the air!” –

flew so high—nearly reached the sky!

but it really gets bad ‘round midnight—

Dissonance—notes/chords clash/create

tension & my bubbles burst in the air,

showering this duo in iridescent tears

‘til old midnight comes around.

& we are feelin’ sad.  Maybe another duet?

There’s always Satie!

                        Jacquelyn Markham ©2025 (Day 24)

Joy for What I Learned

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The prompt from NapoWriMo for Day 22 took me back to a time when I learned to play the flute.

Having come from a rural one-room schoolhouse with few resources and moving to a small town highschool as a 7th grader, I arrived without any musical background. The kids at the “city” school started music in 5th grade, so my band director (if only I remembered his name) was kind enough to try to bring me up to speed along with another student who learned the French Horn! That band director surely has received his reward in heaven!

Poet with Flute Serenading the Moon

Also, I highly recommend you read Diane Wakoski’s poem that is embedded within the prompt, too.  It is lovely!

Prompt: “In her poem, Thanking My Mother for Piano Lessons, Diane Wakoski is far more grateful than I ever managed to be, describing the act of playing as a “relief” from loneliness and worry, and as enlarging her life with something beautiful. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem about something you’ve done – whether it’s music lessons, or playing soccer, crocheting, or fishing, or learning how to change a tire – that gave you a similar kind of satisfaction, and perhaps still does.”

Hope you enjoy writing a poem about what you learned joyfully!

You can listen to the Ukrainian anthem and download the flute sheet music (courtesy of flutetunes.com)

And below, a moving rendition of the Ukrainian National Anthem by students at Berklee College of Music.

Those Lonesome Fishing Boats

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Day 16, Poem-a-Day Challenge (a poem after Blue Bayou)

Here’s the prompt: Today’s prompt asks us to “imagine music in the context of a place, but more along the lines of a soundtrack laid on top of the location, rather than just natural sounds. Today, try writing a poem that similarly imposes a particular song on a place. Describe the interaction between the place and the music using references to a plant and, if possible, incorporate a quotation – bonus points for using a piece of everyday, overheard language.”

You can visit Napowrimo, Day 16, to learn more details. Meanwhile, here’s my poem, under the wire on Day 16 of the poem-a-day challenge for National Poetry Month, 2025!

Lime Lake, Michigan

Those Lonesome Fishing Boats

after Blue Bayou

On the green Lime Lake

where the lonesome fishing boats

slap the long low dock

while the clear waves wash

the flat grey stones. I’m pining

for a boy back home, carve initials

in the white birch trunk to

keep that southern boy of mine

in my heart near the limestone lake.

The clear spring lake, where my grandpa

built in his overalls and my grandma

dreamed in her pillbox hat &

I was lonesome all of the time

‘cause I left my baby behind.

White birch bark curled into delicate boats

like the Natives’ boats, when they

waited to get back home, a canoe

filled with fish, silver in the sun.

They were lonesome all of the time.

Shallow green, quiet waves,

rustling trees, sandy bottom rises

with our steps and fishing boats

slap against the long dock

in a rhythm with the voices

of my family in the distance, and

the smell of campfire smoke.

I’m going back some day

come what may to

the memories of the clear

Lime Lake and the White Birch bark

where I carved my baby’s name

since I left my baby behind.

Birch bark grown, covers over

my baby’s name now. Oh, some

sweet day, gonna take away

this hurting inside.

I’m going back some day

to the green Lime Lake.

Jacquelyn Markham ©4/16/2025

Image courtesy of pixy.org

Thank you for visiting Poet Voice @jacquelynmarkham.com

Lunatics

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Getty image, courtesy of http://www.popsugar.com

Prompt for Day 13 from NaPoWriMo:

Also, the short version below:

…here’s our prompt for the day (optional, as always). Donald Justice’s poem, “There is a gold light in certain old paintings,” plays with both art and music, and uses an interesting and (as far as I know) self-invented form. His six-line stanzas use lines of twelve syllables, and while they don’t use rhyme, they repeat end words. Specifically, the second and fourth line of each stanza repeat an end-word or syllable; he fifth and sixth lines also repeat their end-word or syllable. Today, we challenge you to write a poem that uses Justice’s invented form.

I found that the lines in Justice’s invented form varied from ten to thirteen syllables rather than always 12 syllables, soI did the same with my response and varied line length.  Also, I wrote only one stanza of the required six lines as no length was set. Perhaps more to come!

Lunatics

Out from the rivered horizon the moon glows pink-gold.

We waited, yet nearly missed, as in silence it rose.

Across the way, the sunset in a sky of color,

a backdrop of azure splashed in red & rose.

On earth, our moods feel the presence of the moon.

All night, we cha-cha in the light of the moon.

Jacquelyn Markham© (4/13/2025)

Courtesy of wisdomofthespirit.com

Enjoy exploring the spiritual meaning, symbolism and astrology of the April’s pink moon:

How to Get the Most Out of April’s Pink Moon, According to an Astrologer by popsugar.com

Pink Moon Spiritual Meaning & Symbolism by wisdomofthespirit.com

Thanks for visiting me at Poet Voice, thinking about poetry everyday!

For All We Know: Villanelle

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Day 11 Poem-a-Day Challenge

Although we were given the opportunity to write a “loose” villanelle today, I went with the traditional rhyme scheme. You will find the rules for this form linked below, courtesy of the Academy of American poets.

Rules of the Villanelle Form (from Academy of American Poets @ https://poets.org)

From NaPoWriMo, my favorite poem-a-day challenge website, Maureen Thorson offered this optional prompt: “Take a look at Kyle Dargan’s “Diaspora: A Narcolepsy Hymn.” This poem is a loose villanelle that uses song lyrics as its repeating lines (loose because it doesn’t rhyme).  Your challenge is, like Dargan, to write a poem that incorporates song lyrics – ideally, incorporating them as opposing phrases or refrains.”

From Nina Simone’s Song “For All We Know” from NinaSimone.com

This might only be a dream *first refrain
Like the ripples, like the ripples in the stream *second refrain

Villanelle: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.

Where Trains Go

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Like a train a track that stretches ahead, the days blur by and we are now on Day 9 of the April poem-a-day challenge, chugging away toward the middle of the month. Below is the optional prompt from Maureen at the NaPoWriMo poetry site. This prompt is all about Rhyme & Sound which brought to my mind, a train ride.

“And here’s our optional prompt for the day. Like music, poetry offers us a way to play with and experience sound. This can be through meter, rhyme, varying line lengths, assonance, alliteration, and other techniques that call attention not just to the meaning of words, but the way they echo and resonate against each other. For a look at some of these sound devices in action, read Robert Hillyer’s poem, Fog. It uses both rhyme and uneven line lengths to create a slow, off-kilter rhythm that heightens the poem’s overall ominousness. Today we’d like to challenge you to try writing a poem of your own that uses rhyme, but without adhering to specific line lengths. For extra credit, reference a very specific sound, like the buoy in Hillyer’s poem.” Maureen Thorson

Thank you for visiting Poet Voice!

Jacquelyn ~