See Apricots: a Tanka Encompassing Three Prompts<\/a> for the prompts I’ll be using (if I use any at all) this month. To the extent possible, I’m determined to combine all three, plus the Blogging A to Z Challenge<\/a>, each day. That said, I reserve the right not to – despite my conviction that creativity thrives when challenged to overcome constraints.<\/p>\n I recommend reading the daily posts at each of these sites to get a fuller picture of the prompts, though I will summarize them here so you get the general idea:<\/p>\n Be sure to check out some of the Blogging A to Z blogs here<\/a>, too! And do leave comments – seriously, don’t be shy. Real people who still blog still love to get comments! Egg ’em on! I’m number 81 of 133 on the list, this year.<\/p>\n Looking for more prompts? How about these Poetry Prompts: 100+ Ideas to Inspire Your Next Poem<\/a>?<\/p>\n Can you teach a fish to SCUBA dive? I’ve tried SCUBA diving. I’m bad at it. I love snorkeling, though. Last time, I even (grudgingly) accepted the requirement and rationale of wearing flippers. Once I got used to them, I really could swim faster and easier with them than without. But that weight belt? I sink like a rock or pop up like a rocket. I cannot maintain equilibrium, so I won’t SCUBA dive lest I take out a coral reef single footedly. Unfortunately, that means I’ll never get to fully explore this amazing, indoor pool: Deep Dive Dubai: Scuba Diving, Freediving, & Snorkelling<\/a><\/p>\n Do you like to dive? Diving board, free dive, snorkeling, SCUBA?<\/p>\n Have you ever gone swimming with dolphins or whales?<\/p>\n As always, I love to get your comments on this blog, provided you’re a kind human and not a spambot or troll!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does it mean to say “I’m a fish”? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137990914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_has_post_settings":{"highlight_sharing":"default","image_sharing":"default","headline_sharing":"default"},"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[2717,2716,2788,2787,2779,2725,2772,2792,2728],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-137990912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","category-writing","tag-a2zchallenge","tag-atozchallenge","tag-pad","tag-poem-a-day","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-poetry-prompts","tag-poets-northwest","tag-stafford-challenge"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 11:38:42","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\/137990912","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=137990912"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137990912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137991003,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137990912\/revisions\/137991003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137990914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137990912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137990912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137990912"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=137990912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Dive<\/h2>\n
\nTo wear a weighted belt of rocks
\ntied tight with kelp, and rubber shoes
\nto cover fins? Can you teach a whale
\nnot to leap for shimmering joy,
\nbreaking surface tension,
\nmaking waves, to splash
\nher sons and daughters –
\nwould you say
\nit wasn’t “seemly” to be seen
\nto play, to ride the Gulf Stream
\ndrafting in the wake of ocean liners?
\nCan you wear your sleek
\nskinsuit, drink moonlight, dive
\nand savor saltwater, fresh
\nand frigid, bioluminescent,
\nwearing nothing but the weight
\nof your own thoughts,
\ntangled in your seaweed hair,
\ntoes’ unfettered fluttering
\nsending you down, down, down
\ninto a dark, watery embrace?<\/p>\nInspiration<\/h2>\n
Other National Poetry Month Posts<\/h2>\n
Your Turn!<\/h2>\n