Happy 2nd Friday of National Poetry Month! I'm plugging away at a little project using the daily prompts from the folks at NaPoWriMo. I'm aiming my drafts at a middle grade book with the working title of TREEOGRAPHY, so there will be a lot of tree drafts this month. I'm loving the wide variety of poets featured, especially the international names we don't see otherwise!
APR 8 (and yes, I'm a little behind! Watch this space...) In his poem, “Poet, No Thanks,” Jean D’Amérique repeats the phrase “I wasn’t a poet” multiple
times, while describing other things that he instead claims to have been. In your poem for today,
use a simple phrase repeatedly, and then make statements that invert or contradict that phrase.
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not a being
“It’s not a plant”
too tall too gray too black
too rough too hard too solid
we don’t have to water it
it stands by the curb like a sign---
that’s not a plant
except for how it roots and drinks
how it grows from the soil
how it absorbs sunlight–sunlight!--from the air
how its billion built-in factories make
green sugar for the planet
a sign of life
“It’s not a person”
no eyes no ears no mouth
no lungs no heart no moving muscle
it can't communicate
it stands in one place in silence---
that’s not a person
except for how it sees and hears
how it breathes and beats its blood of sap
how it trades messages–messages!--through the soil
how it sends and receives information
through the wood wild web of
fungal threads
it’s okay
you didn’t know
draft ©HM 2026
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Our host today is Jone Rush MacCulloch, who greets us today with a gorgeous, looping, linking ars poetica. And of course, the Progressive Poem has been progressing (so sorry that I have been missing it all week; just a few dozen things going on here) -- catch up today as I will with Line 10 from Janet Fagal!
I got excited by Donna's addition of place names and had to join in...my version of the map here:
April 1 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
April 2 Cathy Stenquist at A Little Bit of This and That
April 3 Patricia Franz at Reverie
April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
April 5 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 6 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
April 7 Ruth Hersey at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town
April 8 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
April 9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
April 10 Janet Clare Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
April 11 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry
April 12 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 13 Linda Mitchell at Another Word Edgewise
April 14 Jone MacCulloch at Jone Rush MacCulloch
April 15 Joyce Uglow at Storied Ink
April 16 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
April 17 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 18 Michele Kogan at More Art for All
April 19 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
April 20 Buffy Silverman
April 21 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
April 22 Karen Edmisten
April 23 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
April 24 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 25 Tanita Davis at Fiction, instead of Lies
April 26 Sharon Roy at Pedaling Poet
April 27 Tracey Kiff-Judson at Tangles and Tails
The "how it..." endings of each of the stanzas are so hopeful and joyful, like "how its billion built-in factories make / green sugar for the planet / a sign of life" Enjoy NPM with lots of good tree drafts and hopefully a breather on some of the things that are keeping you too busy.
ReplyDeleteI’m loving the tree project and this one does not disappoint. I especially love the lines that repeat. Sunshine —sunshine! And messages—messages! So effective and the device draws out the enthusiasm of a child discovering something new. Thanks for sharing your new names on the map. I’ll send it out to the remaining poets.
ReplyDeleteHeidi, I keep stumbling across the fact that trees trade messages through roots via fungus! There must be some synchronicity. Your prompt/quote reminded me of this:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/88730/from-the-hatred-of-poetry?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20260411&instance_id=173923&nl=the-morning®i_id=237571847&segment_id=218058&user_id=ed96a465c240d4d583f1fd4ff9fbdce3
Sorry for the length of that link!
I love the way you've woven so much factual information into your poem, but managed to keep the child-like wonder of it all. "Sunlight-sunlight!" is so effective! Well done!
ReplyDeleteI freakin' love trees. And I love this poem, and especially love the last two lines, Heidi!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to "Treeography!" I take a lot of pictures of trees at a nearby state park, and could imagine your wonderful poem being part of a tree walk there.
ReplyDelete