Our host today for the second day of VerseLove 2026 at http://www.ethicalela.com is Leilya Pitre, who teaches and coordinates the English Education Program at Southeastern Louisiana University. She inspires us to find meaning and poetry in small, everyday moments: You can read her full prompt here.
She explains her process: Look at the world around you—from your immediate surroundings inside to outside of your window or on your path. Somewhere close a poem is waiting for you.
Find the poem that’s hiding in plain sight. Let a road sign, billboard, or passing phrase spark today’s writing. Look for the poetry in the everyday little routines, your (or someone else’s) habits. You don’t need to go far—it might be right in front of you.
Today is the first day of VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, and many of the Slice of Life writers and Stafford Challenge poets will be joining this robust group of poets who write during Open Write throughout the year and VerseLove every day in April. We’ll be joined by writers from Poetry Friday and Spiritual Journey Thursdays and those belonging to many other writing groups – from all across the continental United States and from other countries as well. I love March and April because there is a convergence of writers from different groups all coming together.
Today’s host is Sarah Donovan, creator of EthicalELA and human being extraordinare. You can read her opening prompt here, inviting us to write about the landscapes of our lives – along with the response poems of others throughout the day. By the afternoon hours throughout April, there will be an amazing collection of poems all on a theme. Come write with us. Or come read what we’ve written.
the page and the pen
inside me there is a boxcar bent fork and family there is a farm radiant web overhead there is Golden Fedder Fountain and Verbivore there is River Heights old clock and mystery there is Mitford Village Barnabas and covered dish there is a mountain Swiss cabin, goats, grandpa
Inside me there are pages some filled, some blank where the reader writes the story but I
Ada Limon was our U.S Poet Laureate prior to our current Poet Laureate, Arthur Sze. She writes poems and puts them in a drawer, returning to them later to see which ones seem to have bloomed. She tells writers who are striving to make a living off “just writing” that their poetry wants them to live and work and pay their bills. Limon lives in Lexington, Kentucky and is inspired by nature, and of course by horses, being so close to the Kentucky Derby -and if you’ve never read How to Triumph Like a Girl, you simply must click this link and devour every single line. Ada Limon is one of the two poets our dog Ollie loves best, as his chewing on the corner of Bright Dead Things reveals (I cropped the damage out in the photo below).
I’ve created a Cento poem by using existing lines from two of her collections and arranging them into new poems. The first poem is from lines in poems in The Carrying.
What a Day Is
The big-ass bees are back, tipsy, sun-drunk
The birds were being so bizarre today
that brute sky opening in a slate-metal maw
and the dogs are going bonkers in the early morning
and this is what a day is. Beetle on the wainscoting,
But friends, it’s lunchtime.
Lines for my cento were taken from these poems, in this order: Dandelion Insomnia; Almost Forty; The Leash; The Visitor; Late Summer after a Panic Attack; The Light the Living See
I couldn’t resist TWO poems for today. Need I say that Ada Limon is in my top tier of favorite poets? Maybe even my very favorite. These lines for this cento were taken from Bright Dead Things.
Shower Dragon
I’m crying near the shower
changing swirl of hips and hope
part female, part male, part terrible dragon
But I want to be more like a weed
perched on the edge of euphoric plummet
of psychedelic-colored canaries: a cloud
of air, of water, of fire, of earth
of fast wishes caught by nothing.
Taken from, in this order: Cower, Play it Again, Accident Report in the Tall, Tall Weeds; The Good Fight; Midnight, Talking About our Exes; Adaptation; The Whale and the Waltz Inside of It; The Plunge.
Throughout the month of March, I have been celebrating a different living poet each day by taking lines of their existing poetry and rearranging them into new poems called Centos. Today’s living poet is one that I was blessed to hear as part of the Stafford Challenge monthly guest speakers. Lauren Camp was the Grand Canyon’s Astronomer in Residence and a New Mexico Poet Laureate. She read from a couple of her books, including In Old Sky and shared of her theme of darkness and how it is often misperceived.
You can read about Lauren Camp, along with her poetry, here. If I were writing an introduction to my slice I am envisioning for March 31, today’s poem would set the stage.
Voices of the Poetsfrom Center Circle
Many of our people have lived
Nothing is insignificant, but I know the room
Where the center is
is this truth
is, the future
let that vision be as large as creation
Lines for this Cento were taken from these poems, in this order: Diminishing Echo; Reclaiming Perspective; Bluest; Into this Absence; Prognosis; Fear of.
The first time I ever heard Sarah Kay perform “Hands,” I was speechless. She was young, polished, and profoundly moving in her delivery. She’s the living poet I’m celebrating today during the Slice of Life Challenge. Each poet’s collection has inspired me to take a selection of their existing lines and rearrange them, creating a Cento poem from their work.
Sarah quickly became a favorite, and one whose YouTube videos I share with my book club when I send out morning poems during National Poetry Month. Imagine my surprise when I learned that she was coming to Serenbe Pavilion in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia this May! Serenbe is an hour from where I live – a Saturday night drive well worth the cost of a reserved seat. I can’t wait to hear her in person – I’m thinking of it as a small pre-retirement gift to myself to ignite the flame of all the poetry events I’ll finally be able to attend, even if they’re on weeknights. For today, I’m thumbing through A Little Daylight Left and indulging in the joy of her writing.
You can read more about Sarah Kay here; this link has her famous Ted Talk “If I Should Have a Daughter” embedded into the article with the interview.
My Cento:
I study the metronome of his breath
I am a snow globe of worry
So maybe this is a Magic Cat
A tricky riddle cleverly solved
We laugh & laugh & laugh
These lines were taken from the following poems, in this order:
An additional thought today:
When I woke up and read a post this morning from Peter at Five Hundred a Day, I realized that I, too, have been fishing for the place my words are looking for (don’t miss his blog post today – it’ll bring a tear or two or a Kleenex full). In 2025, a colleague and I started an office book club. Recently, she has become a Silent Book Club host, and we have both seen our husbands, infrequent readers prior to this additional club, show up and take ownership in “their” book club. It has been a blessing, and as our ladies’ book club meets for our discussions and adventures, our husbands will go have dinner and discussions of their own. I made a mental note: there is something to showing up without expectation to discuss a book that appeals to folks..
I share all of this to say that like Peter, I’ve been fishing for an in-person writing group in my town and nearby smaller towns, and I found the Silent Book Club equivalent in a group called Shut Up & Write (SUAW). Each writing group where I can share with others is so unique, but one type of group I don’t have in my life and desperately need is in-person. I applied and have apparently made the cut, was approved as an organizer, and will complete my onboarding training during Spring Break in a week and a half. I’m casting my reel out to ask if anyone has attended a Shut Up & Write event and to ask for your experiences. I’d love to get your thoughts.
Ollie eats good poetry; hence two of these books appear more loved on.
This month during the Slice of Life Challenge at http://www.twowritingteachers.org, I’m celebrating a different living poet each day and using their work to create a cento poem. David Gate is a poet who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Asheville, North Carolina and writes predominantly on themes of nature and the environment. You can read more about David Gate here and here.
When the Baby Goats are Dying
People say “money doesn’t make you happy”
when the baby goats are dying.
It tells you nothing.
They say to “stay strong.”
I always do.
Lines for this Cento were taken from: The Problem of Happiness; I Still Get to Be Yours; Curse these Minutes; Stay Strong; Winter’s Insistence
If you’ve been following the celebration of living poets I’ve been adding to the circle each day, you just knew all along that this poet was coming to the party. Whenever I need to stop taking life so seriously but still keep the reality in perspective and blend in some humor, I reach for Billy Collins. He’s got me covered when it comes to a balm for the heart on weary days – which is pretty much every day when the pollen count is high and I have spring fever and work in a windowless cubicle. Oh, I have my Billy Collins favorites ~ Whale Day, Banana School, An Irish Spider.…all of them are as unique as his personality and just as engaging. He’s a former US Poet Laureate. In one of his writing videos somewhere in the past, I remember him saying, “Bring in a spider.” The spider is the metaphor for the unexpected zinger in a poem. I see them in his poems, all these spiders, and I strive for them in my own. It’s like that one secret ingredient that makes the poem come alive. You can read more about Billy Collins here on his website.
Worms Speak of a Narcissist
Surely, narcissism fails to capture
people on the street
and what you had been feeding me
just an expanse of white ink
pass through my special glasses, but not you.
Now, I am free of the collar
It’s the science of worms
near a breadcrumb on the curb
and, I swear, they began talking about you.
Lines for this Cento were taken from, in this order: Freud; Height; The Order of the Day; the Peasants’ Revolt; Special Glasses; The Revenant; The Introduction; Height; Carry
31 days of Living Poets in a tribute book stack – STANDING STRONG
Throughout the month of March, I’m celebrating a living poet each day. The living poet I’m reading today is Naomi Shihab Nye, and her collection of poems I’m using is Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners. I’m writing Cento poems, which are lines of existing poetry that are taken and put together to form a new poem, much like making a patchwork quilt.
Naomi Shihab Nye’s line from a poem was featured as last year’s National Poetry Month poet by Poems.org (if you have not requested your free one for this year, request it here before they run out – and you can also download it for a letter-size poster. I was pleasantly surprised that a former student from the school district where I work was the artist for last year’s poster. You can read about the artist Christy Mandin here.
When I read the full poem Gate A-4 by Nye from last year’s poster, my mind went back to the Albuquerque airport – the Sunport, from which we had flown back home to Georgia after driving half of Route 66 in June of 2024. That’s a small airport, and it’s the reason we chose it to fly home. When we do the other part of Route 66, we will fly into Los Angeles and out of Albuquerque, basically having completed Route 66 from both ends to the middle from each direction. In any case, I was seated on the wall opposite the check-in desks, and I could envision the entire scene of the poem playing out. It warmed my heart in all the best ways. I’d been right there. Right in that spot where the action in the poem happened. And I was grateful for the memory of being there to be able to “see” it so clearly. My Cento poem today is rooted in the bad news for the woman in the poem at Gate A-4. My last line is in response to how Naomi herself took the bad news and made it good.
Poets will do that.
You can read more about Naomi Shihab Nye here. As a member of the Stafford Challenge who will attend the first poetry conference in Oregon this June, you can believe that one of the speakers I’m most looking forward to hearing is Naomi Shihab Nye. I hear her appearances are rare, which already has me anticipating what a treasure of a moment this will be.
I use Cento sticks to capture golden lines, then rearrange them into new poems.
Bad News
What can you expect?
News loves to be bad
Poured full of ripe language
beneath each human move
What surprised you lately?
Lines for this cento were taken from these poems: The Tent; Moment of Relief; After Listening to Paul Durcan, Ireland; Showing Up; Where do Poets find Images?
He’s famous for inventing his own form of poem called the Duplex, and he’s a professor of writing and the Director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia – a mere hour from where I live just south of where his pen graces his pages each day. I own his book The Tradition, but I couldn’t find it anywhere and am grateful that our public library in my small town had a copy. You must check out Jericho Brown, a Pulitzer Prize winning poet who is as real as poets get on a deeply personal level. I’ve written a cento poem using his existing lines from this collection to form a new poem below.
I was transfixed on the smiling poet delivering her poem with grace and poise at the Biden inauguration. Wearing a yellow coat, with red, she beamed and took the podium. When she spoke, I was speechless, mesmerized. Her name is Amanda Gorman, and her poetry is healing. Our nation needs a spoonful – perhaps a bottle full – of Amanda Gorman right now. You can read more about Amanda Gorman here and here. I’ve composed a Cento poem using Gorman’s lines from various poems, listed beneath the poem. Her words: Pay Attention. Learn from them. are words I will carry into the day.
We Rouse Ghosts
Even as we stand stone-still
we rouse ghosts ~
A grandma on a porch fingers her rosaries.
This truth, like the white-blown sky.
What endures isn’t always what escapes.
Pay attention.
Learn from them.
Taken from: The Shallows; Who We Gonna Call; The Miracle of Morning; & So; Cordage, or Atonement; Hephaestus; In the Deep
Common Threads 