Welcome to Poetry Friday, the first one during National Poetry month. We are hosted this week by Matt Forest Ersenwine Here. He is a teacher and prolific author of poetry books for kids including A UNIVERSE OF RAINBOWS, a beautiful anthology that included many Poetry Friday authors. It earned a 2026 Notable Book Award for Children’s Poetry. Thank you, Matt, for hosting.
This is National Poetry Month. One of my favorite things is the PROGRESSIVE POEM. Every day of the month a Poetry Friday blogger adds a line, moving the poem forward. The yearly event was started by poet Irene Latham and I love being part of it each year. I am following closely at the moment because I have to come up with the 5th line on Easter Sunday.
Tabatha started the PROGRESSIVE POEM on 4/1 Here with an amazing first line, and the lineup of poets is as follows, if you’d like to follow along.
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
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
My post today is about two surprises I discovered on my walk: two flower that compete with the crocus for the first spring flowers to bloom. They were growing in a gully in front of my house. I never knew they existed.
The first is the Siberian Squill or Wood Squill. It is an immigrant flower, native to Turkey and Southwestern Russia (not Siberia). It is a lovely tiny little flower but beware! It’s poisonous for some animals.
FROM RUSSIA
From damp fallen leaves
shy blue flowers: "I am here!"
to color this land
The other flower in full bloom is the Common Snowdrop. (not to be confused with the Snowflake) . It is another flower first to appear in the spring, at least in temperate regions like New York. I have always thought of the crocus as coming first, but this definitely competes.
COMMON SNOWDROP
buds may hang their heads
but they sneak-up and arrive
to join the chorus
As I am planning a few weeks with our grandson, it might be hard to keep up, but I will try and definitely follow along on the NPM celebrations.
My contributor’s copy of The current issue of Little Thought’s Press arrived this week. The issue is about the human body and entitled HEAD, SHOULDERS, SPLEEN AND NOSE. Moe Phillips’ delightful poem about the Uvula is also in this issue and many poets new to me, all focused on the body.
Below is my short poem entitled ESOPHAGUS, and its illustration.
I leave you with a painting of a deer grazing in our neighborhood. I hope he looks more like a deer than a horse.
Thank you, Matt, for hosting this week!
