Monthly Archives: April 2026

Questions and Answers: NPM26 #4

What’s your job?

No matter who asks:

     doctor

     cashier

     insurance agent

     random stranger in the elevator 

I answer

     teacher

What grade?

The standard follow-up.

First grade

The inevitable unchanging single syllable 4-letter response is

Cute

They can be. 

They’re also:

feisty and opinionated 

timid and uncertain 

liars and painfully honest

hilarious and NOT!

surprising and predictable 

constant conundrums

consumingly curious

cautiously certain

ferociously feral

frustrating

funny

fabulous 

They learn 

even when they’re trying not to 

mostly they sink their teeth 

(the ones that aren’t falling out)

into your heart

and never let go. 

That’s my job. 

What’s yours?

Nature’s Art: NPM26 #3

When the day dawns cloudy and you have a sunset event planned, dreams of color fade to black and gray. Rain teased, moments of downpour mixed with fizzled drizzle. Nothing to keep you inside or suggest storm. Jacket nor umbrella made their way to into the day’s supplies. Time nears and the sun makes a path through the maze of clouds, an unexpected guest appearance.

After clouds and rain

shave ice spilled, pouring

colors you can taste

In Search of a Poem: NPM26 #2

Here raindrops tap a daily rhythm

singing out

on windshields and foreheads 

cooling and greening

I want to pack my pockets 

with these watery tunes

hold them close

take them home

across the sea with me

Throw them high over my head

release them

let them

sprinkle

skitter

spit

saturate 

slip

slide

soak

spray

splash

seep

sing out

offer

daily green

           softly

           warmly…

Seascape: NPM26 #1

30 poems in 30 days? Here goes…

Thanks to Verselove for the inspiration.

I. Inside me flows

salty Pacific waters

always moving, never still

etching their way from 

head to heart, calling

my name

II. Misty mornings wake me

dampen my face, painting

monochromatic shadows that

smell of sea funk

rust tracing the rivers

where salt spray never dries

III. Waiting for evening sky bursts

colors beyond imagination 

when juicy languid reds trickle into

luscious oranges that tickle the nose 

yellows so tart your taste buds pucker

sensory feast worth hungry gray days

IV. Inside me lives a liquid map 

surrounded 

by desert where fires flare,

water is precious, beauty goes deeper

than the eye can see

roots spread to quench their thirst

V. seeking connections 

VI. My pen yearns for words

to plant seeds deep underground 

to protect my lifeblood and yours

Earth’s waters

That flow in us all