Welcome to April and National Poetry Month. I plan to write a new poem every day for the month of April. For much of the month I hope to explore prompts in poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, but I make no promises not to find inspiration in other places. If you want to join in even more poetry fun and shenanigans check out the 2020 National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events Roundup hosted by Jama over at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. And for the first time (for me) I am taking part in the Progressive Poem organized by Margaret at Reflections on the Teche. Check out the daily progress with the list of contributors on the right (scroll down). You can find today’s line from Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life.

Last Friday Michelle Heidenrich Barnes at Today’s Little Ditty offered another in-depth look at My Shouting, Shattered, Whispering Voice: A Guide to Writing Poetry and Speaking Your Truth by Patrice Vecchione. Each week she is sharing a challenge from the third section of the book. Last week’s challenge was to write about something you have lost. You can read the full description here and check out the entries on the padlet.

I had a hard time deciding what to write about from my ever growing list of things I’ve lost throughout my life. I finally decided on a lost story. As a child I read a story that I loved and wanted to reread, but I could never remember the title. I would haunt the shelves of the children’s room at the library looking for it. I would beg the children’s librarian — who could usually pull titles from the sketchiest of information — but I never found the story again, at least not as I remembered it.

A Story Lost

I wander
through the shelves
looking for a story
I lost somewhere
among the stacks
of stories
I devoured.
It’s an old-fashioned
story, with children
and a pony pulling
a cart through
summer mornings.
There might have been
strawberries or blackberries
kissed by the sun
and probably
a rambunctious mutt
bounding through a meadow.
I look for my lost story,
pulling books off the shelves
and flipping through pages,
but no one can tell me
its title
as I wander
through the shelves.

If you want to see the rest of National Poetry Month poems, here they are:

Day 14: Water’s Smooch (from Laura Shovan’s #WaterPoemProject)
Day 13: Hope (from lying to tell the truth in poemcrazy and Emily Dickinson)
Day 12: My Sign (from my daily walk)
Day 11: Stitches (from from my grandmother in poemcrazy)
Day 10: These Hands (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)
Day 9: I’m From (from where do you come from in  poemcrazy)
Day 8: Peaceful Porch (from Plum Nelly poemcrazy)
Day 7: I Am (from full moon me in poemcrazy)
Day 6: Progressive Poem
Day 5: Small Celebrations (from on a night picnic in poemcrazy)
Day 4: A Water Limerick (from Laura Shovan’s #WaterPoemProject)
Day 3: our real names (from our real names in poemcrazy)
Day 2: Star Burst (from naming wild hippo in poemcrazy)
Day 1: Pandemic (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)