Susan Ahlbrand of Indiana is our host today for Day 10 of Verselove at http://www.ethicalela, com, and she inspires us to write love letters to a place we love. She challenged us to try a villanelle, a 19-line poem of five tercets and a quatrain with a rhyme scheme and refrain sequence. As I sit on the campsite of a Georgia State Park recharging my batteries this week, I could not think of a more fitting place to pay tribute.
Villanelle Tribute to Georgia State Parks
out in the woods on a state park campsite
nestled in shade by meandering creek
Pollock-splashed beams of breeze-filtered sunlight
Bryan Ripley Crandall, our host today for Day 9 of VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, lives in Stratford, Connecticut, where he directs the Connecticut Writing Project and is Professor of English Education at Fairfield University. He co-hosts National Writing Project’s The Write Time.
He shares his process and the directions by inspiring us to write about our homes and places we’ve lived. I’m not thinking past today – I’m thinking future.
Driving through stunning mountains alongside a clear blue lake on a sunny day
Our host today for the 8th day of VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com is, Linda, who lives in Virginia, where she teaches from a middle school library. Linda inspires us to write prose sentences in the form of poetry the way we would say it in verse. You can read her full prompt here. She gives us this example: “In English, we might say, ‘I feel lost in the chaos of life,” but in poetry we say, ‘The heart wanders through the storm, seeking sunlight in shadows.'”
She shares a process we can use: Take a sentence from English. Translate it via the phrase, in poetry we say…
My chosen phrase is Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.
Luke Bensing of Valparaiso, IN, our host today for the 7th day of VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, teaches 9th Grade English in Merrillville, IN. Since it’s Tuesday, I’m also writing with the bloggers at Twowritingteachers.org, slicing about a reflection or part of my day.
Luke inspires us to write poems that have alliterative beginning and ending lines and that are inspired by a photo on our camera roll or any other image. You can read his full prompt here. Lately I’ve been dabbling in the fun and challenge of watercolor painting after seeing so many friends’ lovely paintings last month as part of the Slice of Life Challenge. A couple of them were using Emily Lex guides to take them step by step through the process, and it prompted me to pick up a set of watercolors and see what the paint brought out. I started with an inexpensive Hobby Lobby version similar to the Lex guides – this one with a nature and floral theme.
It’s a perfect camping hobby since it doesn’t take a lot of equipment or space, is inexpensive without a ton of supplies or brush cleaners needed, and you can mess up and still fix it. My lofty aspiration in a dream world would be to be like one of those plain-air painters who can sit outside and paint whatever they see. If the water stays wet, I’ll be one of those low-grade types, never having true talent like my children have (they got that from their father), but just enough skill for the trying will make me happy. In retirement, I dream of traveling the United States in a Winnebago View model 24D and paint the sunsets in the National Parks and write poetry with my 3 schnoodles curled around my feet, behaving like normal dogs (if I’m dreaming, I’m dreaming big). So today, I’m going for the gusto. I’m in the learning phase in an InTech Aucta Willow Rover in a Georgia State Park painting lilacs from a step by step guide.
If it all falls to pieces, I’ll go for the paint by number sets next.
I chose a lilac for an alliterative haiku, inspired by this image below. A novice attempt at the painting, but a start nevertheless.
Wendy Everard of New York is our host today for the sixth day of VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, encouraging us to write forgiveness poems. You can visit the website for her original prompt, which I’m sharing in part here as she quotes Joseph Bruchac from his book A Year of Moons: “It’s January here in our Adirondack foothills. The time of Alamikos, the Abenaki term for the first moon of the new year. In English, it’s the New Year’s Greeting Moon. It’s the time when people would go from one wigwam to another – nowadays one house to another – and speak the New Year’s greeting, Anhaldam mawi kassipalilawalan. Its meaning, translated into English, is, ‘Forgive me for any wrong I may have done you,’ a recognition of the fact that there is always more than one way to look at any situation, any human interaction, because it would be said not just to people you know you’ve wronged, but to everyone. Everyone.”
She goes on to describe the process we can take writing our poems:
“Your poem can take any form you wish. Bruchac urges us to ‘think of the times when your own feelings were injured by a word or deed from someone who was totally oblivious to the fact that they’d wounded you. It happens more often than we think. We’re in a hurry and we brush someone off. We make a remark offhandedly or say something that we may think is humorous but in fact cuts another person to the quick.’ Or think of a time that this happened to you. Or just write a general poem of forgiveness – giving it, asking for it, or struggling with it. Reflect, and write a poem that captures the spirit of “anhaldam mawi kassipalilawalan.”
I’m not gonna lie. I’ve forgiven some doozies, and I’ve been forgiven for some doozies, others of which I may never be forgiven for, but I’m struggling with one that needs a lot of head space and heart space. I’m still chiseling away at it, ten months later. And poetry helps me see that I’m not alone in my struggle.
To bard or not to bard? That is today’s question from Jennifer Jowett of Michigan, our host for Day 5 of VerseLove at ethicalELA.com. Please join us to read poems, or write one of you own to share.
Jennifer encourages us to UNfind lines, making them opposite and see what they bring us in poetry. She says: “We’ve played with found lines. Sorted through them. Rearranged them. Created new poems from them. But have we ever un-found them? Find a line of poetry that speaks to you. Un-find it by exchanging the main words with their antonyms. You may choose to keep smaller words like helping verbs, prepositions, and articles or use an opposite for those too. Write one line or several and join them together. Or use a line as a starting point for a longer piece.”
I’ve been reading Steam Laundry by Nicole Stellon O’Donnell, a living poet in Alaska, and I’m using lines from her collection today. Here are the original lines from the book:
Not the way I came (At Last an Invitation from Eldorado)
I thought of the egg (In the House of our New Marriage)
So we each took turns in the water (Tom and Elmer Dive for the Gun)
Some towns glitter (The New Camp)
When I lose myself (At Last an Invitation from Eldorado)
But here the sun spins around (Lost Luxury)
Here is my Antonymic Revelation Poem for today, and I’m grateful to Jennifer Jowett for inspiring us to write today.
I’m hosting today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the fourth day of VerseLove to celebrate National Poetry Month. Hop on over there and write with us today! Follow this link.
Inspiration
I made a commitment to follow more living poets in 2026, and I’ve been on a remarkable journey of discovery ever since. As a third-year member of The Stafford Challenge, it brings great joy to see a surge of interest in modern poetry! At my father’s funeral in June 2025, I chose a poem from an anthology of living poets to read at his graveside – not one written long ago. I reached out to the poet to let her know I planned to read it, and I sent her a recorded clip of that reading. Imagine my surprise when, with tears in her eyes, she sent her own recorded message back explaining that it was her own cancer journey that had inspired her deeply moving poem. I hope to meet her in person this summer when I travel to Portland, Oregon.
Joy Sullivan, author of Instructions for Traveling West, is one of the living poets I follow on social media. Her Substack, Necessary Salt, captivates me with each new post. I think what I find most enthralling is the sheer glory she finds in everyday moments. I invite you to go on a living poet journey to find new writers throughout the month. Use their work to inspire your own, even borrowing their style and a line or two to frame your own poem. You can find living poets at Teach Living Poets, Poetry Foundation, and by using search engines to discover others.
Process
I’ve selected a poem by Joy Sullivan to get us acquainted with each other using the title alone: The cashier at the gas station asks me where I’m from. Here is the poem free to download from Pinterest.
Choose a person and setting (i.e. cashier at the gas station, pastor at church, mysterious stranger at the bar, waitress at a restaurant, passenger on an airplane, etc.) and introduce yourself. Title your poem as Joy Sullivan does, and offer us a glimpse into your world.
My Poem
The Soapmaster of Green Willow Soaps asks me where I’m from
so I tell her: an hour south of Atlanta
because no one has ever heard of this place
and besides, these towns are so tiny we all just say
Pike County
which is small enough to spit watermelon seeds
across, where the sunsets rival Titian red
when we look over Alabama-way
but what I don’t tell her as I place bars of
Mountain Mist, Morning Citrus, and Purple Haze
into my arm basket
is that I’m plotting retirement in these mountains
sipping black coffee on my porch
in the shadows of Blue Ridge
channeling inner birdsong and crystal-splashing waterfalls
Today’s Host, Melissa, lives the Rocky Mountains. She invites us to explore ekphrastic poetry today. She explains: Ekphrasis poetry is inspired by art. This style of poetry typically involves a verbal description or interpretation of the artwork, aiming to create a new artistic experience through the intersection of poetry and visual art.
She shares her process: Look at some art–photographs, sculptures, paintings, etc. How would you describe this piece of art? How does the art make you feel? Where does the art take you? Does the art have a deeper meaning or backstory that maybe one cannot see but needs to explore with words? Does the art bring back memories?
Our host today for the second day of VerseLove 2026 at http://www.ethicalela.com is Leilya Pitre, who teaches and coordinates the English Education Program at Southeastern Louisiana University. She inspires us to find meaning and poetry in small, everyday moments: You can read her full prompt here.
She explains her process: Look at the world around you—from your immediate surroundings inside to outside of your window or on your path. Somewhere close a poem is waiting for you.
Find the poem that’s hiding in plain sight. Let a road sign, billboard, or passing phrase spark today’s writing. Look for the poetry in the everyday little routines, your (or someone else’s) habits. You don’t need to go far—it might be right in front of you.
Today is the first day of VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, and many of the Slice of Life writers and Stafford Challenge poets will be joining this robust group of poets who write during Open Write throughout the year and VerseLove every day in April. We’ll be joined by writers from Poetry Friday and Spiritual Journey Thursdays and those belonging to many other writing groups – from all across the continental United States and from other countries as well. I love March and April because there is a convergence of writers from different groups all coming together.
Today’s host is Sarah Donovan, creator of EthicalELA and human being extraordinare. You can read her opening prompt here, inviting us to write about the landscapes of our lives – along with the response poems of others throughout the day. By the afternoon hours throughout April, there will be an amazing collection of poems all on a theme. Come write with us. Or come read what we’ve written.
the page and the pen
inside me there is a boxcar bent fork and family there is a farm radiant web overhead there is Golden Fedder Fountain and Verbivore there is River Heights old clock and mystery there is Mitford Village Barnabas and covered dish there is a mountain Swiss cabin, goats, grandpa
Inside me there are pages some filled, some blank where the reader writes the story but I
Common Threads 