National Poetry Month '26: Poetry Piques

On Poetry Piques

Well, ready or not, here we go!

Hello, National Poetry Month.

Hello, sleeping blog.

Hello, commitment.

In celebration of Poetry Month, I plan to publish a poem here at least 26 days (because it's 2026 and I might need some wiggle room). Last year, I let myself write a poem a day in my notebook. Well, that didn't go exactly as I had planned. It seems I quite easily let myself off the hook several days in April of 2025. This year, I hope to remedy that a bit.

This year's collection will be called "Poetry Piques" because I'm going to write about whatever has caught my attention for the day. I don't want to put myself in a box; I haven't been writing with the regularity I would like. It seemed that instead of mapping the path before I began, it might be better to just go where the path leads. Time will tell. 

One afternoon, while trying to decide my plan for the month, I stumbled upon the word "pique." As I've played with it, it seems perfect for a month of poetry. 

Here's some of the definition from Merriam Webster:

In truth, the month could go either way: either fantastically led by curiosity that inspires poetry or just an irritating endeavor. Ha! Time will tell. 

How did I get here? As I was trying to play with the oppositional meanings of pique, I noticed my poem was moving into tercets. In working through possible structures for tercets, I discovered the "Terza Rima," in which the last word of the second line becomes the rhyme for the first and third line of the next stanza. I probably took a lot of liberties here (and perhaps forced it a little), but it was a fun little puzzle for the first poem of the month.

Let's go!