If ever we needed you, Pegasus!

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Today is the final day of the April poem-a-day challenge & I so enjoy participating with the poets on Maureen Thorson’s site: Napowrimo.net though we often call it Na/Glopowrimo as it is not only national, but global! What a joy to write and share poems with poets all over the world. It’s fast and furioius, but we can always return to the site and revisit some of the fantastic resources Maureen provides. I am not sure I was able to write with a “dispassionate tone” today, but I tried to stay somewhat faithful to the prompt as described below:

“And now, here’s this year’s final (optional) prompt. In his poem, “Angels,” Russell Edson speaks of these spiritual warrior-messenger-guardians as if they were a type of endangered animal. Brief as it is, the poem is disorienting in its use of flattened diction, odd similes, and elliptical statements. Today, try writing your own poem that discusses a real or mythical being or profession (demons, firefighters, demonic firefighters) with the same sort of musing yet dispassionate tone.” https://www.napowrimo.net/day-thirty-12/

Powerscourt mansion garden near Enniskerry, Ireland,
photo credit: David Matthew Lyons

Pegasus

If ever we needed you, Pegasus, it is now.

Come down from the sky, winged one.

Touch your hooves to the earth, kick

the dirt to bring springs of hope.

Pegasus, gift to the muses of

poetry,

music,

inspiration.

If ever we needed you, Pegasus, it is now.

To bring springs of hope.

All over the world.

            ©Jacquelyn Markham (4/30/2026)

Pegasus

Thank you to all the poets we participated in the poem-a-day challenge and to Maureen for her fun & inspiring prompts. What a joy to share words, ideas, and images with poets across the globe.

More about Poet Voice

The poet

A Gentle Rain at Dawn

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Hello dear readers,

How is your poem-a-day challenge going (if you have chosen to participate)? If not, I hope you are enjoying reading the work of so many dedicated poets!

I have been writing everyday, but not blogging everyday. Today, I’ve decided to post my poem in an image because it got a little long. The prompt asks us to compare details from today with the past. To see all of the prompt, look below for Maureen’s prompt for Day 29 from Napowrimo or Na/glopowrimo (National/global poetry writing month!)

“Finally, here’s today’s prompt (optional, as always). In “After Turning the Clocks Back,” Jennifer Moxley links present with past, using a few well-placed details to invoke both a sense of the daily “now” and a nostalgic sense of the speaker’s long-ago life. In your poem today, similarly, compare your everyday present life with your past self, using specific details to conjure aspects of your past and present in the reader’s mind.” (napowrimo.net)

–a bluebird in the rain & My penultimate poem offering for Day 29:

Note: My blog is most active during April’s Poem-a-day Challenge, but I hope you will visit any time of year.

Also, please check out my writing mentoring service here: Moonflower Mentoring. Are you interested in a creativity mentor to get you over a dry spell? Or, one to assist with craft or to work one-on-one on a specific piece of writing? If so, please email me for more info: jacquiepoet3@gmail.com.

But who Remembers Her?

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Homage to a favorite poet!

What a wonderful day in National Poetry Month when a poet gets to revisit a favorite poet in responding to the daily prompt of Napowrimo (National Poetry Writing Month) or as we now call it Na/Glopowrimo (National/Global Poetry Writing Month). You can write on your own sweet time or you can write along with Maureen Thorsen at napowrimo.net, Stafford Challenge (and write a poem everyday for a year!) at this link: https://staffordchallenge.com/ or many others as you choose.

What’s important is to express yourself! In our case, in the form of poetry!

So today, on Day Seventeen, Maureen challenged us to use a poem by a favorite poet as a springboard for our own. Be sure to visit that link to get all the details.

So, I selected a modern American poet I’ve long adored: Hilda Doolittle, known–if known at all–as H.D. Imagiste!

Hilda Doolittle (1886-1961)

If you would like to know more about H.D.’s remarkable literary life & achievements, go here and learn from the “Literary Ladies Guide.”

But to my poem! Late last night after diving deeply into some of my favorite poems in my well-worn copy of the H. D. Collected Poems on my desk, I selected “Evening.” I post it in its entirety below my response to her poem.

H.D. in later years

Evening

The light passes

from ridge to ridge,

from flower to flower—

the hepaticas, wide-spread

under the light

grow faint—

the petals reach inward

the blue tips bend

toward the bluer heart

and the flowers are lost./

The cornel-buds are still white

but shadows dart

from the cornel roots—

black creeps from root to root

each leaf

cuts another leaf on the grass,

shadow seeks shadow,

then both leaf

and leaf-shadow are lost.

            Hilda Doolittle (H.D.)

Hepaticas, credit: https://www.theenglishgarden.co.uk/plants/flowers/how-to-grow-hepaticas/

Another day in the life of Poet Voice, aka Jacquelyn Markham, poet; “thinking about poetry everyday,“

Sweet Meadow & Orchard of Childhood

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Credit: Artist, Emily Lowe; vareikafinearts.com

Hello out there! It is Day 13 of the Poem-a-Day for April, 2026. How are you doing with your poems, dear poets?

Today, our guru poet prompter, Maureen Thorsen at Napowrimo.net, asks us to try our hand at a prompt about a “cherished landscape.” (Please check out the link for more detail.) Here’s a recap:

“Try your hand today at writing your own poem about a remembered, cherished landscape. It could be your grandmother’s backyard, your schoolyard basketball court, or a tiny strip of woods near the railroad tracks. At some point in the poem, include language or phrasing that would be unusual in normal, spoken speech – like a rhyme, or syntax that feels old-fashioned or high-toned.” (napowrimo)

The “remembered cherished landscape” that I chose takes me back to a meadow & apple orchard in rural Michigan, when I was a mere child and loved to explore there. I used the tiniest hint of a rhyme in the last line of each stanza.

What a sweet memory, especially when our uncle would take us on hayrides through the cherry orchards up north & as a child at home, I would traverse the paths of Queen Anne’s Lace on my own.

Poetry is a wonderful way to revisit memories, or as William Wordsworth called them “spots of time.” Do you agree with this Romantic Poet of the 19th century? He found his memories of great use in his old age, as explained here: “These ‘spots’ are potent memories that can help a person grow and learn something about life and loss. When Wordsworth reflected upon experiences that he had with nature or with other people, he often used them as inspiration for his poetry.” (credit: https://wordsworth250.byu.edu/index.html_p=386.html)

Please feel free to comment. How does your memory serve you in writing, especially poetry?

Jacquelyn Markham aka Poet Voice!

my head is in the clouds

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An antidote to the news, today’s prompt is quite fun! I responded to the Day 8 prompt from Napowrimo.net which is pretty simple: “In your poem for today, use a simple phrase repeatedly, and then make statements that invert or contradict that phrase.”

Check out the sample poem by Jean D’Amerique from Haiti if you need inspiration. https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poems/poem/103-30866_POeTE-NON-MERCI

I’m sharing my poem & more clouds below! Maybe you will enjoy an escape into the clouds today!

photo by the poet

What’s happening, Mother Mary?

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Hi Poets & Lovers of Poetry,

I am here working on the Poem-a-Day challenge for April and the Stafford Challenge as I explained in my previous post. I may not post everyday, but I am writing everyday and that is the goal! How is everyone else doing? Feel free to leave a comment below!

Today’s prompt from NaPoWriMo.net sparked my imagination:

“In your poem today (Day 6), try writing with a breezy, conversational tone, while including at least one thing that could only happen in a dream.” (https://www.napowrimo.net/day-six-13/)

Since there was an element of dream in this prompt, I was inspired by a collage I created long ago from a dream. I will share the dream image here.

Note: Mother Mary in my poem & image is not associated with any particular religion, but more with my understanding of the feminine divine.

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