April is National Poetry Month. In 2023, I committed to sharing one poem each day—verses written across decades, some never shared with a soul until now. Join me on this 30-day journey through poetry that spans time, place, and transformation.
I believe in the cathartic power of poetry to connect us across boundaries of region and time. There is great freedom in putting pen to paper, especially in seasons of loss when words become our lifeline. These poems served as my coping strategy, helping me recreate memories to recall and find light in the dark days that inevitably come.
Follow along chronologically—one poem per day—and discover how poetry can be both refuge and revelation, capturing moments that might otherwise be lost to time.
Writer’s Challenge: Read one of my poem’s each day, then write your own… #April30PoemsChallenge
- Day 1: When April Doesn’t Fool – Finding a Friend in Spring Blossoms
I saw you on 21st Avenue today, exactly one month since the accident… You were there today, too, between the branches; just beyond the blue. A tender poem about finding a lost friend in spring blossoms. - Day 2: Beneath the Cherry Blossoms – A Love Letter to My American Dream
You are my American Dream, I found you there beneath the cherry blossoms… In thirty years, we sit beneath the cherry blossoms reading Tolkien or Chesterton aloud. A love poem set against Washington D.C.’s iconic spring beauty. - Day 3: Form of Death – Raw Grief at My Grandfather’s Grave
I kneel before you, grass imprints on my hands and knees… The dirty, gray, aging stone tries to tell me you’re not here anymore, but I feel you. A raw, visceral poem of grief written at my grandfather’s grave. - Day 4: The Cliff – A Seventh Grader’s First Real Poem
The stresses build, forming a rigid cliff, off which I plunge, towards the raging seas below… My first real poem from 7th grade – raw emotion from a young girl learning that deep feelings aren’t a death sentence. - Day 5: 100-Meter Dash – Seeing Myself Through Someone Else’s Eyes
Face set hard, cold somewhere beyond the finish line… explain me this: why do you run this race while I watch you? A college poem exploring perfectionism through the lens of someone watching me run. - Day 6: Shoeboxes on the Top Shelf – The Dilemma of Dead Flowers
Come on, little girl, bring them flowers inside, hurry now, dry ’em and die ’em… Too good for garbage cans but nothing jist the same. What do you do with the beautiful memories when love ends? - Day 7: Il Messaggero – Finding Myself in an Angel’s Wings
Oh, but she is gentle and at peace, this ‘winged figure’ of exalted atmosphere… A man who watched me watching her found the resemblance quite uncanny, the only differences he saw were ‘wings of faith.’ Art inspiring art at the Art Institute of Chicago. - Day 8: Cinnamon Stick Christmas – A Love Letter to Mama Joy
It’s the cinnamon simmering on the stove, its aroma filling in all of the empty spaces that her love hadn’t quite reached yet… Joy is in the garlands, glimmering in the lights, smiling through the snowmen. - Day 9: Cruise Control – My Father’s Quiet Strength
Wake up 5:30 AM, walk an hour on the treadmill… Calculate the numbers and know they’ve been worth the load. A tribute to my father’s daily sacrifice during my grandmother’s battle with dementia. - Day 10: Peter. Peter. Peter. – Walking in the Apostle’s Shoes
Three times I denied him that I love, twice before you… And for each time I denied him, there’s a nail through his flesh and bones. A Holy Week reflection on Peter’s denials and redemption through his eyes. - Day 11: For Zachary – When Young Men Die Too Soon
And when the song is done, we drown ourselves in scriptures of promise… He may be dancing now, but whom will she dance with? And I take the batteries out of my watch. A funeral poem questioning time and God’s faithfulness. - Day 12: The Light on This Corner – Rush Hour Revelations
People scurrying and hurrying on two feet or two wheels or four wheels… All headed off to somewhere, no doubt, all busy and rushing… Time is a creation of many a man. An intersection meditation on human rushing. - Day 13: Where Autumn Meets the Road – A Jeep Ride That Changed Everything
In that jeep with the windows gone and the wind that whips on through… he reached his hand across to change gears and wound up changing me. Bob Seger on the radio, capturing a perfect moment before summer ends. - Day 14: Dáme Puerto Rico – A Bilingual Love Letter
Llévame to the narrow, blue-grey cobblestone streets… Dáme una vida in Puerto Rico, No va de prisa, every inch paraíso. Hazme tropical – messy, free, and alive, beating to the rhythm of a bomba barrel. - Day 15: Mosaic de La Mona – Sea Glass and Second Chances
Collecting sea glass from Lala Beach… Broken pieces of shattered vessels smoothed by a journey after death… Canal de La Mona, take all my shattered pieces… Broken pieces become a masterpiece. - Day 16: Decidedly Pensive Beneath Red Chenille – A Toxic Love’s Blanket
Your place is dirty but wise… And you’ll make me forget what hasn’t happened yet. Crimson chenille covering wounds and truth—a poem about toxic relationships and the comfort that conceals. - Day 17: A Different Kind of Fairy Tale – When God Calls Rapunzel
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your golden hair to me… ‘Twas worse than a witch who put you here, your own sin the demon, the condemner. A spiritual retelling where God pursues the trapped princess. - Day 18: The Night Remembers – A Song for the Sleepless
They said that I deserved a man who wouldn’t make me cry, but I cry more in the absence of you… The night remembers everything that I spend my days forgetting. A song-poem about missing someone who was bad for you. - Day 19: Premonition – Death Climbing the Spiral Stair
Premonition climbs the spiraling stair, she passes me on my way down… I know my death will follow when she passes me the next time. A haunting poem using visual effects to create a spiraling staircase of doom. - Day 20: Dividing the Shore – Where Blue Meets Blue
Goleta Beach in the summer of 2006… Divided by the horizon, only not so divided, where blue of water meets blue of sky – limitless. A California beach meditation on boundaries and infinity. - Day 21: That Street – Where I Fell in Love Over and Over
That street could tell so many stories… And each time my foot touched the pavement on that street, my heart beat once for him, twice for his touch, thrice for his kiss. A middle school memory of first love on one special street. - Day 22: Barely Breathing – When Winter Winds Wake You Up
The winter winds whip in and out of my cracked screen door… So alive in spite of me. Everything I haven’t touched yet, touches me, knows me if only for an instant. A dark season poem about feeling alive despite depression. - Day 23: Changing Faces – Becoming More Like My Mother
What is that face in the looking glass? It’s familiar, I know, but more like you than what I remember from before… Where did you study the love you embody? A daughter seeing her mother’s wisdom reflected in her own changing face. - Day 24: Stillness of a Moment – A Love Song That Could Be Prayer
Will I ever recover or move beyond your face, your smile, your eyes… In the stillness of a moment with you, the scars are ever-reminding me. Recorded with Bob Cowherd—but the “you” might surprise you. - Day 25: Palm Open – Sophomore Heartbreak and Empty Hands
Palm open, hanging lonely at my side, empty, longing to entwine with fingers constant and consoling… The images are starting to fade, I can’t feel your pulse. A dramatic sophomore’s first heartbreak poetry. - Day 26: My Mind in a Tanning Bed – Counting Life in Eight Minutes
Count in the seconds, the minutes, they climb… Twenty-five; a quarter of a century, a third of a life, and I am twenty-six. Foomp. Lights out. A stream-of-consciousness countdown crafted in a tanning bed. - Day 27: Suicide by Sonnet – When Depression Writes in Iambic Pentameter
Oh God, oh Sun, oh servant Christian man, why dare you me, bid me rise when I am blind… A Shakespearean sonnet that let the poem contemplate what I couldn’t, written during my first bout with depression. - Day 28: The B-Sides – Leftover Love and Cassette Tape Metaphors
Leftover after everything’s been said, shared, savored… Just flip the tape over and play the rest of what I never said now that I’m gone. A clever pun on being “besides” and cassette B-sides. - Day 29: Put them Side by Side – When Your Brain Won’t Stop Thinking
On the phone tonight I successfully carried on multiple conversations… Emily Dickinson had it right, the brain is wider than the sky, high above these telephone lines. An unfinished poem about overthinking everything. - Day 30: If Your English Teacher Could Rap – Eminem Meets Heartbreak
I was dreamin’ of tomorrow so I sacrificed today… You think there’s gold in me, but I’m fractured and weak… In my head, Eminem is rapping these lines about brokenness and second chances.
Writer's Growth 