Welcome to my April 2026 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…maybe even with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, D is for … Dreams

Or do I mean nightmares?

Night Terrors

I woke this morning and tried to stand
my feet were water, slipping, flooding the hard wood floor.
I tried to push myself onto my knees
but knees flamed, sparks flying across the room.
My hands were bright balls of light
blinding my eyes, that were grapes, peeled
like ones we feel in a Hallowe’en vat
next to spaghetti brains and potato fingers.
I fell on my back, but it melted into the floor
back to sleep, and I hoped soon I would wake
from this nightmare, as I had so many times before.

Thanks for visiting my 2026 A to Z Challenge – Letter D.

Welcome to my April 2026 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…maybe even with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, C is for … Can’t help but go dark. I don’t know why, but this poem went to a more horror place than I was expecting. The prompt was a “Ghost Line” where you use a given line from a poem as your first line, then write your poem jumping off that line and go back and delete the line you started with. And this is what happened today:

Listen

We all do it, we can’t help
walking on bones, creaking
over skulls crushed
into earth’s soil, enriching loam.

Thousands lie buried beneath
cities, towns, streets, houses,
mouths open in silent screams
help us rest, yet we stride above

heedless among unmarked graves,
pulling life from death to feed wiggling
worms, stroking roots in a passion
of ghostly ardor. We pause,

in the silence, tilt ear to ground,
strain to hear the slithering
spirits whisper, we are here;
We will wait.

Thanks for visiting my 2026 A to Z Challenge – Letter C.

Welcome to my April 2026 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…maybe even with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, B is for … Begin Again

This is a “begin again” poem…

Begin Again
(After Phillip Levine and Major Jackson)

Let me begin again
as a nightmare in your dreams
holding you captive under storm clouds
and dust.
Let me begin again
as thickened tendrils of seaweed
pulling you down into a swamp
covered in slime.
This time let me
find you where I wish you to be,
trapped in a darkened closet
sinking in the corner
by the locked door.
Let this time let me be the one
pushing fear into your heart
as I turn my back and walk
into the sunshine.

Thanks for visiting my 2026 A to Z Challenge – Letter B.

Welcome to my April 2026 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…maybe even with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, A is for Abstraction in Prose. 

Ok, so I am going to be playing hard and fast with these A to Z “rules” this time around because I am taking a 30 poems in 30 days course and only want to have to write one poem a day, not more. So today’s assignment was to describe “a universe” of some kind. I did so, in a prose format which created an abstract view of procrastination. Well, maybe better to say took the abstract concept of procrastination and tried to create an image of it. Anyway, Abstraction it is, in a very draft prose poem.

How Procrastination Came to Be

My universe of procrastination is carefully crafted from the finest bright green and red silken threads of worry and doubt, woven into cloth of the deep purples of distraction, overlaid with gilt of guilt, not the smooth lying guilt of not meeting commitments and promises, but the ridged rigid guilt of not caring, the guilt of not feeling guilty as you have been taught. This craft is deeply embedded in my soul, over 61 years of practice, fingers no longer bleed when pricked by the sharp needles trying to hold it all together, but now callused and hardened by cynicism at a world that once promised to change and be better, but somehow keeps turning back to those times we all thought were past us for good. All I can patch together, all I can control, is how I bring cloth and threads and gilt together in patterns that once represented hope and instead pulls me into an unreality of novellas and Netflix. Never finished, but after all these years, I can flip my silken cape over my shoulders as if I were a superhero, or wizard, or wizened crone (and I am all these things in my imagination, or is it a real world waiting for me to finally admit myself?) and huddle on the couch, eyes closed, covered in the vast emptiness I have created.

Thanks for visiting my 2026 A to Z Challenge – Letter A.

Welcome to the Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z 2026 Theme Reveal!

This is the 15th or 16th year of the challenge, I can’t rightly remember which, and I’ve been a participant since 2014.  Like last year, and every other year, I will be writing my posts on the fly!

Before I reveal my 2026 theme, here are themes from challenges past:

• 2014:  I blogged about our house, and the befores and afters of the renos we did and changes we made after buying it.
• 2015: I blogged about interesting places in Victoria (all close to home).
• 2016: I blogged about learning to use my DSLR
• 2017: I blogged about my ‘hood in Welcome to James Bay!
• 2018: I blogged about the wonderful world of wabi-sabi in photographs.
• 2019:  I blogged about A picture-story a day (in the life, so to speak)
• 2020: I blogged about female photographers
• 2021 I blogged Photos and Stories
• 2022 I blogged Photo editing apps!
• 2023 I blogged My life in first drafts!
• 2024 I blogged A poem a day (with a picture)!
• 2025 I blogged A poem a day (maybe with pictures, maybe not)

And this year I am  once again going completely rogue and flying by the seat of my pants with A to Z poem a day, remembering that April is Poetry Month too! I may or may not make an honest effort to go in order from A to Z this year, but I always find this challenge gives me some purpose for a month and just like last year, will keep my mind from insanely stressful workplace issues that for some reason continue – like Groundhog Day on steroids.

So, I will see you on April 1 for my first post!

This post approved by Elliot.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, Z is for …Zappai

“Zappai poems are like haiku, but not. Or maybe more appropriately, they’re like senryu, but not (or maybe they are). This poetic form definition may sound kind of wishy-washy, but zappai are poems that have a 5-7-5 syllable pattern that do not contain the seasonal reference expected of haiku. In other words, zappai are all those haiku people write that haiku poets recognize as not being haiku. Again, senryu could fit this definition as well, but senryu also can have a looseness with the syllables, much like haiku, so that 17 syllables are not mandatory. Zappai should still be poetic, but they’re 5-7-5 poems that don’t include the seasonal reference. Final answer. I think.”

Challenge Completed!

As spring blossoms fall
so fall 30 April poems
and now I can rest

—

Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter Z.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, Y is for …Yadu.

“The ya-du is a Burmese poetic form. Here are the guidelines:

• Quintains (or five-line stanzas).
• Four syllables in the first four lines.
• The final line has either five, seven, nine, or 11 syllables.
• The fourth syllable of the first line rhymes with the third syllable of the second line and the second syllable of the third line.
• The fourth syllable of the third line rhymes with the third syllable of the fourth line and the second syllable of the fifth line.
• The fourth syllable of the fourth line rhymes with the final syllable of the final line.
• Subject usually deals with seasons.
• Most ya-du are written in three or fewer stanzas.“

I think I got this right, but I have to say I am glad there is only one letter left. It’s been a challenging month!

All Year Round (no seasons here)

Sun beams on floors
sparkling more dust
before I clean:
swiffer queen that
can preen around the kitty cats.

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Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter Y.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, X is for …Badger’s HeXastich,

“Badger’s Hexastich is: a poem in 6 lines.syllabic, 2/4/6/6/4/2. unrhymed, optional rising and falling end-words.“

All I Got Today

Free fall:
cascading blooms
drifting like snow onto
streets, stickers of petals
plastered on car
windows.

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Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter X.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, W is for …Waka

“The waka is a Japanese 5-line poem (or stanza) that is often considered synonymous with the tanka, because both have a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable per line structure. However, the waka groups its lines together in a particular way. The first 2 lines should make up one piece, the next 2 lines should make the next, and then, the final line can stand on its own–or as part of the second group. It’s possible to end stop after line 2, 4, and 5. But other forms of punctuation can do the trick as well.”

Despite It All

Camellias die
as red striped tulips spring forth.

Cycles continue
despite ife’s twists and trials.

We still wake, open to sun.

—

Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter W.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, V is for …Virelai

“The virelai is a French poetic form with alternating rhymes and line lengths. Here are basic guidelines:

• nine lines per stanza
• lines one, two, four, five, seven, and eight have five syllables
• lines three, six, and nine have two syllables
• the five-syllable lines rhyme with each other and the two-syllable lines rhyme with each other to make the following rhyme patter: aabaabaab
• the end rhyme for the short lines continues on in the following stanza
• the final stanza’s short-line end rhyme should be the same as the long-line end rhyme in the opening stanza (to complete the end-rhyme circle)

Waiting Room

We sit in black chairs
silent. And we stare
at those
phones sending us where
madmen rant and dare
to pose
like birds strutting there,
ravens of nightmares
and woes.

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Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter V.