{"id":137991035,"date":"2026-04-21T22:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T03:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/?p=137991035"},"modified":"2026-04-22T08:47:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:47:58","slug":"renewal-day-18-of-national-poetry-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/renewal-day-18-of-national-poetry-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Renewal: Day 18 of National Poetry Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Day 18: National Poetry Month<\/h2>\n<p>Words like rest, relaxation, recreation sprang to mind. But after watering wilting houseplants and venturing out into a light rain for lunch, now sitting here listening to the steady, rhythmic, head-pounding percussion of droplets against the metal chimney, the word &#8220;renewal&#8221; elbowed its way to into my forehead.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Stop knocking,&#8221; I moaned. Some of the pain stems from the fact that I whacked my head on the doorframe of my car last night after a nice, long walk in the park with a friend. Exercise is good. Drinking water during a hike is important. Being able to bend my body low enough to miss the doorframe and not give myself a concussion, complete with tweety birds? That would&#8217;ve been amazing.<\/p>\n<p>Well, one out of three goals accomplished &#8211; five miles down. As for the concussion? Who knows &#8211; I &#8211; I woke up this morning so I&#8217;m going to call that a win.<\/p>\n<p>I told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.erinpenn.com\/2026\/04\/q-is-for-quote\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Erin Penn<\/a> I was going to quote her, and this seems an appropriate time:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you eat 100% of the grain, there is nothing to plant for the next harvest. Keep something back so you can grow.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s prompts include &#8220;high\/low&#8221; and the words:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>At the speed of darkness<\/li>\n<li>Muscle<\/li>\n<li>Isolated entities<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I have taken Erin&#8217;s advice and held a bit in reserve for later.<\/p>\n<h2>Never the Twain Shall Meet<\/h2>\n<pre class=\"poem\">Apex and nadir, entities\r\nisolated, suspended\r\nwithin the teeming middle ground\r\nof average, ordinary\r\nmediocrity\u2014rendered\r\ntoothless and benign.\r\nMatter, antimatter\u2014light\r\nat the speed of darkness\u2014\r\nopposites attract. Membranous\r\nmuscled center shrinks,\r\nsquished.\r\n       Shapeless.\r\n\r\n            Safe.<\/pre>\n<h2>Other National Poetry Month Posts<\/h2>\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><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 class=\"current\"><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>What are the highs and lows of your week, so far?<br \/>\nDo you think opposites attract or drive each other farther apart?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does &#8220;recreation&#8221; require destruction? Does &#8220;rebirth&#8221; require death? Do opposites attract or repel?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137991098,"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-137991035","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 09:07:17","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\/137991035","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=137991035"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137991035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137991099,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137991035\/revisions\/137991099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137991098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137991035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137991035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137991035"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=137991035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}