Energized: Day 5 of National Poetry Month

Apr 5, 2026 | Poetry, Writing

Day 5: National Poetry Month

Todayโ€™s prompts: โ€œenergized,โ€ โ€œsafety,โ€ and โ€œbeing so grumpy you hate everything,โ€ like Charles Darwin hated clover and bees. It is also, conveniently, โ€œEโ€ โ€“ happy Easter to those celebrating it. I hope you woke to a beautiful sunrise!

Energized

black sand soil sizzles โ€”
ice-sparkle starlight
on alien hills, craters

dress for the Arctic โ€”
first light will dazzle,
kiss away frost breath

Haleakalฤ
dawn calls forth purple
silverswords.

ZipOdes

Returning, for just a moment, to my personal โ€œforms challenge.โ€

Thanks to the poet Jane Honchell, whom I met through The Stafford Challenge, I learned about a poetry form called ZipOdes, invented in 2015 by O, Miami Poetry Festival, and WLRN.

What a great way to celebrate the state in which we live!ย 
First, write out your ZIP code, vertically, down the left side of the page. Each number is the number of words per line โ€“ write each line to the right of the numbers. If you have a zero in your zip code, that line is a wild card! You can leave it blank, insert an emoji or symbol, or use any number of words between 1 and 9. If you are coming to this post from a place that uses alphanumeric postal codes, Kris Archieย came up with a solution: When the line has a letter instead of a number, that line has one word that must begin with that letter.ย 

Billboard with ZipOde poem for 77070.
An example using zip code 77070:
7ย  ย  ย Tropical Cypress hosts magnolia, palm, loblolly pine
7ย  ย  ย along creek-border between wilderness and
0ย  ย  ย suburbs
7ย  ย  ย raccoons, possum, gators, armadillos thrive โ€“ coyotes howl โ€“
0ย  ย  ย joy.
Give it a try! Post yours โ€“ or a link to yours โ€“ below.

Other National Poetry Month Posts

Iโ€™m going to have to think a bit on the โ€œgrumpyโ€ poem. Iโ€™m sure one will come to me before the day is out. Darwin is such an inspiration โ€“ I have had days like that, and even posted something about hating clover and bees on Facebook, recently. Why, my Day 2 poem might even fit the bill! Go read that and say I merely jumped the gunโ€ฆ

Your Turn!

What makes you grumpy? Have you ever tried writing it out in poem form?

What are you doing, if anything, to celebrate Easter?

Thank you for visiting and reading. I hope youโ€™ll leave a comment โ€“ maybe even a poem โ€“ below.

Holly Jahangiri

Holly Jahangiri is the author of Trockle, illustrated by Jordan Vinyard; A Puppy, Not a Guppy, illustrated by Ryan Shaw; and the newest release: A New Leaf for Lyle, illustrated by Carrie Salazar.

She draws inspiration from her family, from her own childhood adventures (some of which only happened in her overactive imagination), and from readers both young and young-at-heart. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband, J.J., whose love and encouragement make writing books twice the fun.

4 Comments

  1. Erin Penn

    I don’t know if I’ve ever written a grumpy poem.
    G – Great day with sunny sky to go to work
    R – Rain welcoming me when I leave the office
    U – Until the sun sets, when I was about to pull out a book and tea for the rainy night
    M – Moon shining bright, which is helpful because the electric just went out
    P – Please let tomorrow be better.

    Reply
    • Holly Jahangiri

      Y – YES!

      Yours reminds me of the book, “Fortunately, Unfortunately”

      Reply
      • Erin Penn

        My grump is usually when plans go awry.

        Reply
        • Holly Jahangiri

          As they so often do. I almost worry when the day goes exactly as planned, as if there’s a hidden “gotcha!” hiding in the dark as I’m drifting off to sleep. As if the thing that goes “bump!” in the night is the other shoe dropping.

          Reply

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