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#VerseLove Day 29 with Stefani Boutelier of Michigan – Titles

Stefani, our host for the 29th day of VerseLove 2025,, is an Associate Professor of Education at Aquinas College in Michigan. You can read her full prompt here.

She writes, “Poem titles are not discussed, practiced, or modified as often as the art of crafting a poem. Therefore, I wanted to remind us again about the power of titles and how they have the potential to hold the hand of the poem and lead it to new interpretations.”

Today, Stefani invites us to create a title centered on identifying or twisting the content, theme, or purpose of a poem. She suggested letting other readers offer a title for our poems today, so here is mine, awaiting a title.

(Readers, please suggest a title)

I learned to ride a bike at the corner

of Friar Tuck and Robin Hood Roads

next door to Doc and Mama Byrd

in Reynolds, Georgia at five

cradled by Coventry

and Sherwood Roads, steeped

in peach orchards

Baptist church

and skint

knees

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#VerseLove Day 28 with Donnetta Norris of Texas – Showers to Flowers

Donnetta Norris is a 2nd grade teacher in Arlington, TX, and is our host today for the 28th day of Verse Love 2025. She inspires us to write cause and effect relationship poems. You can read her full prompt here. She encourages us to write a poem that depicts or expresses how good can come from what is seemingly bad.

Turning the Tables on a Narcissist

sometimes you don’t realize it right then

a certain someone cuts you off

because you wrinkle their plan

you begin to question

the reasons for their

bad choice, then just

like that you’re

cut off ~

thank

God!

you were

dealing with

a narcissist

but hadn’t figured

it out until you were

next on the flying monkey

list but you knew right from wrong and

turned the cutoff into your own choice

you escaped! (as always, they play victim)

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#VerseLove Day 27 with Alexis Ennis – Ode to Crochet

Alexis Ennis is a 6th grade technology teacher who calls herself a “bookdragon” because of her voracious appetite to read and hoard all the books. She is our host for the 27th day of VerseLove2025, inspiring us to write odes today. You can read her full prompt here.

Ode to our Schnauzery-Schnoodle, Fitz

our bonus home security

you never let us down

there will be no human intrusions

or squirrel, or lizard, or

God forbid ~ deer

thanks to you

our home security system

you’re always on high alert

sounding the alarm

on anything that moves

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#VerseLove Day 26 with Scott McCloskey of Michigan – Minor Ailments

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Scott of Michigan is our host for the 26th day of VerseLove2025, inspiring us to write poems about minor ailments. You can read his full prompt here. He gives these directions:  Choose a minor ailment – I just googled it to find a list – and spend a bit of time with it.  Write a poem about it. 

Blurred Vision Apparition

glancing out the living room

window in the early morning

after a night of fierce storms

I see it ~

there behind a tall pine

its left half still obscured

by the tree

an alien-looking specter

with a long right arm

peering in my window

eyes so real they’re trying

to tell me something

I remove my glasses,

rub each lens between the soft

cotton fold of my pajama shirt

and look again

the apparition is still there

with a sense of urgency

in its eyes

but as the sun rises

I realize

it is only the dry bark

of a tree that

didn’t get rain-saturated

but still

I can’t help wondering

its message

for me

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#VerseLove Day 25 with Ashley Valencia-Pate of Florida: Spoken Wishes

Ashley lives in Titusville, Florida where she works as a high school English teacher.

Today, in the spirit of wishing, she inspires us to write a double dactyl poem. You can read her full prompt here. This whimsical form of poetry is made of two quatrains.

  • Line one is a pair of nonsense rhyming words
  • Line two introduces the subject of the poem (often a name)
  • Lines one through three and five through seven contain two dactylic metrical feet
  • Lines four and eight have one dactyl plus a stressed syllable

Aucta Schmaucta

Kimberly wishingly

camping glampingly

marsmallowly mellowing

happily hammocking

camping and coffeeing

secretly harboring

Willowy dreams

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#VerseLove Day 24 with Larin Wade of Oklahoma – Seasons in Syllables

Larin of Oklahoma is our host for the 24th day of VerseLove2025. She inspires us to write Etheree poems about a season of our choice. You can read her full prompt here.

An Etheree poem consists of 10 lines with the number of syllables of each line order as the count.

I know everyone is tired of winter, but here in Georgia it only takes a couple of days of the heat to be ready for winter again, and I’m already there.

Winter Chill

wintertime snowdrifts on the windowpanes

thick quilts piled high on a soft king bed

schnoodles snoozing by the fireplace

six books stacked under the lamp

cabin socks snug on feet

plush fleece pajamas

a day off work ~

I’ll take my

chai tea

HOT!

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VerseLove Day 23 with Barb Edler of Iowa – Things to Do: Write a Poem

Our host today for the 23rd day of VerseLove 2025 is Barb Edler of Iowa. You can read Barb’s full prompt here. Today, she inspires us to create list poems.

Things You Might See in FDR State Park in Georgia on a Springtime Weekend

a trio of Segwayers gliding over the Delanor Lake bridge

a pair of kayakers paddling in the late morning sunshine

a young barefoot boy running up a hill with a shovelful of something to dump in his bucket

a family fishing off the dock

a couple on bikes, one pulling a child seat, with a Collie running between them

a man paddling a jon boat with a woman fishing off the back

a lone female with worn boots and a tent backpack and hiking poles entering a trailhead

two squirrels flipping through the hardwood canopy like Cirque du Soleil gymnasts

a hammock strung between two trees with a reader flipping pages

a Brown Thrasher, the State Bird, breakfasting on worms on the mountaintop

a Magnolia tree with shiny leaves reflecting the sunlight like mirrors

campers and tents of every size and color nestled beneath the trees along the lake

a wooden footbridge with a mysterious cave entrance….a possum’s cottage?

a group of kids circling a table, working on a camp craft

me, raising a Mason jar of sweet tea, offering you a chair

come sit with me and watch the happy world for a while!

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#VerseLove Day 22 with Margaret Simon of Louisiana – Prose Poems

Margaret Simon, our host for VerseLove Day 22, lives in Louisiana. 

Margaret inspires us to write prose poems of emotion today. She explains, “A prose poem looks like prose; however, there are poetic elements that set it apart from a paragraph. There is a rhythm of poetry within the prose-like lines. Contemplate an invitation to an emotion. Write it out in prose. Let your words flow out like the water from a teapot.”

Click, Click, Click, Ding

….at the table with The Poetry Fox ~ his vintage typewriter clicks like my mind, wondering how he works this magic. Writing poems in a minute, pounding out letters, words, thoughts, feelings. Bringing tears of sentiment, laughter of imaginings, words and images to life. Like a heartbeat, rhythmic and steady, not skipping a beat until the poem is complete and he stamps his paw print, reads the gift aloud, winding my joy-filled heart right into the ribbon of those keys I can still clearly hear…..

click, click, click,

ding,

click, click, click, click, click

ding

click, click-click, click

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#VerseLove Day 21 with Glenda Funk of Idaho – What Did You Do Last Week?

Glenda Funk of Idaho is our host today for the 21st day of VerseLove2025 at http://www.ethicalela.com. You can read her full prompt here, asking us to write poems about five things we did last week in response to a recent federal memo. I chose to think of the sacrifices I made.

Sacrifices I Made Last Week

I didn’t have chocolate (I gave it up for Lent).

I didn’t have coffee (same as above).

I didn’t buy the shoes (I might this week).

I didn’t get mean (I might do that this week, too).

I gave the heart of my days to my work when I could have

tended the plants

stitched a quilt

napped in the hammock

walked the dogs

shopped for shoes

read books all day

written books all day

strolled Gibbs Gardens

tanned on the beach

sipped a latte at Starbucks

visited grandchildren

birdwatched on my favorite mountain

planned a trip in the camper

polished houseplants

played solitaire all day

binged on Netflix

taken a pottery class

accomplished Pinterest projects

painted furniture

written poems on the front porch

stayed home in my sweats and slippers

planned a writing retreat in Telluride, Colorado

.

……but here I am, killing it.

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#VerseLove Day 20 with Susan Ahlbrand of Indiana – Lingering Lines

Susan Ahlbrand of Indiana is our host today for the 20th day of VerseLove 2025. She inspires us to write poems using Broadway lines that stick. Since it’s Easter and I’m heading to Callaway Gardens on Pine Mountain, Georgia for the Sunrise Service this morning, I’m going to wait and choose a line from a Sunrise Service song and change things up a bit.

Check back later for a poem and for pictures of the sunrise on this Easter morning.


Honk! Honk! Honk!

we watched the Cliff Swallows

coming and going from their

mud nests under the eave

of the dock as we waited

for the service to begin

off they went, and back again

as we sang

out of the silence

the roaring lion

declared the grave has no

claim on me

and then we heard them

overhead, coming our way

Honk! Honk! Honk!

right smack dab in the middle

of the Callaway Gardens

Easter Sunrise Service

here they came, flying around

the people

commanding our attention

I counted twelve

and the loudest

Canadian Goose was

the one in the back

Immediately my mind

went to the twelfth disciple

Judas Iscariot

who betrayed Jesus

for thirty pieces of silver

leading to His crucifixion

this cup Jesus asked to be

taken from Him in the

Garden of Gethsemane

and my mind went into

wondering mode

as I sat in Callaway Gardens

hearing the twelfth goose

honk, spurring the pastor

to remark

isn’t that a beautiful sound?

(laughter from the crowd)

that’s how the goose gives praise!

another hymn sung

but drops of grief can ne’er repay

the debt of love I owe

here, Lord I give my self away

’tis all that I can do

Judas, the Greek version of

the Hebrew name Judah,

means Let God be Praised!

the one disciple not from Galilee

the one who betrayed his friend

the one whose evil actions God used for His purpose

the chain of events starter leading to our salvation

the twelfth one by whom God was not blindsided

the one who hanged himself with regret in the aftermath

holds a message for us

that there is hope for all of us yet

that God uses evil for good

here was the twelfth goose

circling us overhead

honking the loudest

on Easter Sunday morning

to the masses below

Honk! Honk! Honk!

Let God be Praised!

Let God be Praised!

Let God be Praised!

as we closed in song

Because he lives

I can face tomorrow

Because He lives

all fear is gone

Because I know

He holds the future

And life is worth the living

Just because He lives!

I disagree with predominant

Christian belief that Judas is in hell.

I believe he had a change of heart at

the eleventh hour, fifty-ninth second

(he was twelfth for a reason)

and that he was the loudest

God-praising goose

this morning.

Hallelujah!