{"id":137991033,"date":"2026-04-20T00:08:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T05:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/?p=137991033"},"modified":"2026-04-20T13:50:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:50:47","slug":"quintessential-querulous-quintet-day-16-17-of-national-poetry-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/quintessential-querulous-quintet-day-16-17-of-national-poetry-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Quintessential, Querulous Quintet: Day 16\/17 of National Poetry Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Day 16\/17: National Poetry Month<\/h2>\n<p><a title=\"Vince is also Poet Laureate of Iowa, when he's not pointing out that I'm running low on brain cells.\" href=\"https:\/\/vincegotera.blogspot.com\/\">Vince Gotera<\/a> pointed out to me, a few days ago, that I could no longer count or recite the alphabet in order. Last time that happened was in college, when I briefly worked in the Library &#8211; after hours of shelving books by Library of Congress numbers, I completely lost the ability to count or recite the alphabet and lost myself somewhere in the basement reading books I was supposed to be shelving. The truth is, I was trying to keep up, here, but I was also enjoying a little &#8220;getaway&#8221; with my husband in Corpus Christi, Port Aransas, and the Padre Island National Seashore. I gave up trying to keep up, so now it&#8217;s time to catch up with &#8220;Q&#8221; and the first words that came to mind became today&#8217;s poem.<\/p>\n<h2>The Quintessential Querulous Quartet<\/h2>\n<p>They were the &#8220;Quintessential Querulous Quintet&#8221;:<br \/>\ntogether in the womb and on the concert stage<br \/>\nthey played discordant melodies on which they bet<br \/>\nuncertain, murky futures for a meager wage.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, they wished to fly through life a solo act \u2014<br \/>\nto leave their squabbling siblings in the feathered nest \u2014<br \/>\nyet long ago these five musicians made a pact,<br \/>\nthough it kill them, they would die &#8220;Belligerent Best.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Other National Poetry Month Posts<\/h2>\n<p>I have made nineteen posts this month. I&#8217;m not <em>that<\/em> far behind. Okay, I&#8217;ll stop being querulous about it.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"lcp_catlist\" id=\"lcp_instance_0\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/national-poetry-month-texas-style\/\">National Poetry Month, Texas Style!<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/apricots-a-tanka-encompassing-three-prompts\/\">Apricots: a Tanka Encompassing Three Prompts<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/bee-sting-day-2-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Bee Sting: Day 2 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/cacophony-and-cbd-day-3-in-nonsense-verse-and-found-poetry\/\">Cacophony and CBD: Day 3 in Nonsense Verse and Found Poetry<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/technically-a-writer-day-3-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Technically, a Writer: Day 3 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/dive-day-4-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Dive: Day 4 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/storm-front-day-4-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Storm Front: Day 4 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/energized-day-5-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Energized: Day 5 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/grump-day-5-%c2%bd-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Grump: Day 5 \u00bd of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/future-frittered-away-day-6-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Future Frittered Away: Day 6 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/hell-hell-hell-day-7-more-or-less-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Hell, Hell, Hell: Day 7 (More or Less) of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/i-day-8-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Insomnia: Day 8 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/juxtaposition-day-9-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Juxtaposition: Day 9 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/knife-edge-day-10-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Knife Edge: Day 10 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/lost-a-day-day-11-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Lost a Day: Day 11 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/many-definitions-day-12-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Many Definitions: Day 12 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/new-form-quadrille-quaiku-day-13-of-national-poetry-month\/\">New Form &#8211; Quadrille Quaiku: Day 13 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/ode-to-imagination-day-14-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Ode to Imagination: Day 14 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/pixellated-people-day-15-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Pixellated People: Day 15 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li class=\"current\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/quintessential-querulous-quintet-day-16-17-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Quintessential, Querulous Quintet: Day 16\/17 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/renewal-day-18-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Renewal: Day 18 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/secrets-of-the-terrarium-day-19-20-of-national-poetry-month\/\">Secrets of the Terrarium: Day 19\/20 of National Poetry Month<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n<h2>Your Turn!<\/h2>\n<p>Have you ever had a job you almost enjoyed, but found to be a terrible fit?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m an only child, so today&#8217;s poem was an invention out of thin air. Those of you with siblings &#8211; can you relate to it? If not, have you ever found yourself stubbornly determined to finish something you started, even though you have a feeling it might kill you (literally or figuratively)?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I could no longer count or recite the alphabet in order. Last time that happened was in college, when I briefly worked in the Library &#8211; after hours of shelving books by Library of Congress numbers&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137991093,"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-137991033","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":"2026-04-30 09:03:44","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\/137991033","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=137991033"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137991033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137991095,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137991033\/revisions\/137991095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137991093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137991033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137991033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137991033"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=137991033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}