April is National Poetry Month

Poetry is everywhere, and not just in April. Let’s celebrate poetry!

Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash

I’m always happy when April comes around, not only because it’s in my favorite season, spring, but because it’s National Poetry Month in the U.S. Poetry often gets short shrift compared to other genres of literature, but the truth is poetry is absolutely essential to humans. That’s why we keep creating it.

I wrote the following poem over 20 years ago, shortly after I found out that chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer rendered me infertile. The poem was born out of deep emotional pain.

Some of you might be familiar with this poem. It was published in the 2023 Body issue of Wildfire Magazine, and I have since posted it on social media.

Infertile Crescent

The moon’s always full,

but I’m a gaping crater,

mother of all craters,

where crates of eggs used to be.

Grief grates on me.

I won’t feel an unborn child’s kick.

Instead I’ve been kicked in the face.

And my chemo-atrophied ovaries

are wearing the boots.

But I bear this ever-present yoke,

while pregnant women enjoy the lap of luxury,

of morning sickness and weight gain,

knowing their laps will soon runneth over

with bouncing life.

I have mourning sickness.

See, I’m a young woman

moonlighting as a post-menopausal freak

trapped between the wheat and the chaff,

harvesting my grief through my craft

and nursing my grievances.

I have enough nutrients to live forever.

I cry as moonlight

shines on broken shutters,

wind-rattled,

lost windows of opportunity.

More Poems

I’ve also been exposed to a plethora of poignant, exquisite poetry.

Julie Wise enjoys sharing Nikita Gill’s poetry.

Jeannie Ewing writes gorgeous ekphrastic poems. Ekphrastic poems are inspired by visual art, such as a sculpture, painting, or photograph. Two brilliant Jeannie Ewing poems are Ekphrastic #1: Of humble origins (found here) and Ekphrastic #6: Weathered (found here).

Pamela Leavey’s Substack contains her beautiful photographs, as well as some poems. See one of her glorious poems A Hawk Flew into My Nest Today here.

Stephanie Raffelock is also a gifted poet, who shares her breathtaking poetry on her Substack. One such poem can be found here.

To round things out, my longtime friend Gerard Wozek is an incredible poet who has published a book titled Dervish, containing wonderful poems. He has a great travel Substack that is so worth reading; to access one of his posts, click here.

I’ve just skimmed the surface of all the amazing poetry in the world. If you would like to share your or someone else’s poem or a link that leads to a poem, please indicate this in the Comments section.