{"id":1011203,"date":"2023-04-01T16:52:31","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T21:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/?p=1011203"},"modified":"2026-02-28T14:12:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T20:12:21","slug":"april-is-the-cruelest-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/april-is-the-cruelest-month\/","title":{"rendered":"April is the Cruelest Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am a fool for April,
\nCruel or not. All sunshowers,
\nPear blossoms,
\nAnd peek-a-boo rainbows.
\nLacy gauntlets thrown
\nFrom branch
\nto\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 branch -
\n   swaying<\/p>\n

April hints of hope,
\nFlirts promises
\nUnfulfilled
\nand
\nyet...
\nI am a fool for April.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Holly Jahangiri (4\/1\/2023)<\/em><\/p>\n

April is National Poetry Month<\/a>. This year marks its 27th year. NaPoWriMo<\/a> - 30 days of writing poems - is poets' answer to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).<\/p>\n

This coincides with the A to Z Blogging Challenge, now celebrating its 13th anniversary. Some participants choose a theme; others wing it. Doesn't matter! The real challenge is to build a practice of writing daily. I think I stuck with it...once.<\/p>\n

This month, I'd like to attempt to do the following things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Write a poem a day and share it - uncurated<\/a> - here;<\/li>\n
  2. Highlight some poets you may be unfamiliar with and encourage you to click the links to read about them and their work. I plan to choose a diverse array of classical and contemporary poets - indigenous poets, Black poets, women poets, LGBTQ poets - that challenge us to see the world differently while also tapping into universal themes and emotions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Today's Poets<\/h2>\n

    NOTE: I won't be commenting on anyone's personal failures and flaws. The work stands for itself, and poetry is nothing if not a reflection of the humanity in us all - with all its failures and flaws.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Sherman Alexie<\/strong> - A Spokane\/Coeur d\u2019Alene tribal member, Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. Read more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World by Sherman Alexie - Poems | Academy of American Poets<\/a><\/p>\n

    I chose this poem, remembering how, for about a year after my mother died, I would pick up the phone to call her - only to remember, halfway through dialing, that the reason I needed to talk to my mom was because my mom had died and I was sad. Turns out, I'm not the only one who's done this out of habit and denial.<\/p>\n

    The Powwow at the End of the World by Sherman\u2026 | Poetry Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n

    Anyone who has struggled to forgive, or who has been admonished by the well-meaning, Hell-road pavers to forgive before they are ready to do so, can relate to this poem. There is deep anger here, but also optimism. It's not quite \"when Hell freezes over.\"<\/p>\n

    Elizabeth Alexander<\/strong> - the poet who composed and delivered the inaugural poem for President Barack Obama in 2009. Read more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Equinox by Elizabeth Alexander - Poems | Academy of American Poets<\/a><\/p>\n

    I chose this poem because we are all sandwiched between two generations. We look back, often with feelings of wistfulness or envy, rarely remembering how eager we were to flash forward in time. We look forward, often with a sense of dread - but always a sense of inevitability. Life is a joyful dance, until it is a frenzied scrambling at the cliff's edge at the end of time. Or until the joy of it leaves us<\/em> before we fly free of our own bodies.<\/p>\n

    Watch:<\/p>\n

    Elizabeth Alexander on African American Poetry | Big Think - YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n\n

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     <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1011254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_has_post_settings":[],"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-1011203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 20:49:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011203"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137990828,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011203\/revisions\/137990828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1011254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011203"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=1011203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}