On the 29th of April spring meadows and woodlands are alive with colour; soft carpets woven by air sprites for little people who inhabit storyland are lighting up the 40 shades; rugs of cuckoo flowers (lady smocks all silver white … do paint the meadows with delight) carpeting bluebells, buttercups, kingcups, cowslips, marigolds, primroses, all will be picked and gathered by humans and tied in bunches to be hung over doors or thrown on doorsteps to ward off fairy power. Each flower has its own symbol. Choose a flower, personify it and write a spring quadrain.


Composed by Mari Fitzpatrick

Is that summer up ahead? Have YOU made a mind picture of how it might be for You this year? Can you scent the flowers, hear the shush of the tide, feel the sun’s breath softly stroking your skin. How beautiful might it all be? Write a prose poem and explain what you are seeing. Now cut in and find the key to your rhyme and compose two sets of couplets.

Composed by Mari Fitzpatrick

Ah, but. I’ve suffered from melancholia in spring. Nature’s exuberance could not distract me when I was determined to continue sad for another day, week, season. Yet, I always rallied, didn’t I? Or I suppose I wouldn’t be here, would I? Do you understand this? Can you write a poem about something like this?

Composed by Nonnie Augustine

W.B. Yeats writes of the countryside in The Lake Isle of Innisfree. He declares that he will 'arise and go there.' He will go to Innisfree. Where will you go, in wish or action, this spring. Where will you leave?

Composed by Nonnie Augustine

April is renewal, remembrance, regret, shopping.

Composed by Nonnie Augustine

Draft a prose poem about a person or object you care for, either real or fictional. Revise what you have written to sharpen its focus. Next choose one of the following: revise your poem into a single sentence, or revise your poem to make use of anaphora (repeating the same phrase several times)

Composed by Bill West

Keat's poem Endymion starts with:
A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
In the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine the chief Blue Meanie says "A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever!"

Take any line of poetry, alter it and make it a jumping off point for your own poem.

Composed by Bill West

In April we welcome the return of the sun and so do our household cats (I have two).

The Egyptians venerated cats. One of their gods, Bastet, could take the form of a cat and is sometimes depicted as a woman with a cat's head. Bastet had a dual nature, a ferocious lioness and a devoted mother. She was the protector of mothers and homes.

Cats will automatically attack snakes (or laces where a snake is not available) and the cat headed goddess Bastet fiercely defended her father Ra from Apep, the serpent demon of chaos and the greatest enemy of Ra the sun god.

Write a poem exploring the qualities and behaviour of a particular cat.

Composed by Bill West

Diamonds are carbon You, me, next door’s cat, coal, cherry trees, pencils, we’re all carbon. In fact graphite is very close to being diamond. It just has fewer covalent bonds which make it less rigid. Graphite becomes carbon way down in the earth’s mantle but you you can’t turn diamond back into Graphite because its bonds are stronger. April however is a very clever month. She turns hard winter into softer spring. It’s a miracle.

POEM: It’s a miracle. Try a Triolet or Pantoum if you like 13th

Composed by Oonah Joslin

Diamonds are a tool. You might find some interesting facts in this link to how diamonds are used in industry, medicine etc to inspire you.

POEM: What tools does April use tool as a cure for winter and to create the rest of the year?

Prompt composed by Oonah Joslin

Hard as Diamond, which is one of the hardest substances there is, sometimes used as tools, diamonds to cut other diamonds or for engraving glass, polishing stone and in a whole host of medical settings. 'April was described as the cruellest month’ by T S Eliot but it’s also a very creative month.

POEM: What facets of April make it a hard month?

Composed by Oonah Joslin

April is to Easter what December is to Christmas, these months top and tail the depths of winter. And April poetry month kicks off on the fool’s day and ends on the eve of the worker’s holiday. We are all good at marking the occasions. The rebirth of light in spring acts like a diviner that strums a chord for the returning dance of life. Yeats references it in the 'Song of Wandering Aengus’ and Heaney in 'The Diviner ,’.. both poets share a magical aspect, a knowing, even a secret knowing.

Have you a secret to share about the season? Have you your own diviner, hazel wand, blackthorn or even rose brier to write about this April?

Composed by Mari Fitzpatrick

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The Song of Wandering Aengus
BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

Source: The Wind Among the Reeds (1899)


THE DIVINER
By Seamus Heaney

Cut from the green hedge a forked hazel stick
That he held tight by the arms of the V:
Circling the terrain, hunting the pluck
Of water, nervous, but professionally

Unfussed. The pluck came sharp as a sting.
The rod jerked down with precise convulsions,
Spring water suddenly broadcasting
Through a green aerial its secret stations.

The bystanders would ask to have a try.
He handed them the rod without a word.
It lay dead in their grasp till, nonchalantly,
He gripped expectant wrists. The hazel stirred.

Brent Geese, Greenland White Fronted Geese and Barnacle Geese that have overwintered in Ireland will now start to make their way home breaking their journey in Iceland. As they travel in family groups some will stop to feed in Carlingford Lough and at Killough in County Down.

Geese are designed with a compass-type of structure in the brain that enables them to tell the difference between north and south, and they do this by detecting the earth’s magnetic field and Brent Geese will travel 3,400 miles What might they see/feel as their internal clock triggers their journey …


Composed by Mari Fitzpatrick

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When the Geese Come North
by Douglas Malloch

Their faint "honk-honk" announces them,
The geese when they come flying north;
Above the far horizon's hem
From out the south they issue forth.
They weave their figures in the sky.
They write their name upon its dome.
And, o'er and o'er, we hear them cry
Their cry of gladness and of home.

Now lakes shall loose their icy hold
Upon the banks, and crocus bloom;
The sun shall warm the river's cold
And pierce the Winter's armored gloom;
The vines upon the oaken tree
Shall shake their wavy tresses forth,

The grass shall wake, the rill go free-
For, see! The geese are flying north!

Write a Easter or Spring Chorus …

Romeo and Juliet’s prologue is introduced by a Chorus (the backing group) … here Shakespeare tells us what he’s going to write about in his play … do similar: write a poem about a spring day and what might happen or will happen : tells us what spring is going to show us or what the Chorus thinks may happen, in sonnet, quatrain, or haiku form but mostly enjoy the write and have fun

Composed by Mari Fitzpatrick

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Prologue
Two households, both alike in dignity
(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage--
The which, if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Show gratitude for the new light in our Northern Hemisphere as we all pull away from the virus ridden affaire.

In "Lines written in Early Spring," Wordsworth believed that every flower breathed and enjoyed the air .. what do you think?

Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth

I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:—
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

How do you illustrate your work? I painted this scene during the week from a memory I made back in 2010. It's acrylic on card and my working title was 'The Cows' ( poetic license with that one) maybe I could file it under found art or found poetry. Do you have a pet--cow or other-- that you might paint or write about/ have you found ideas or poetic prompts to explore while rambling on bridle paths or beaches?

Composed by Mari Fitzpatrick

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Old Poem by Anonymous, was translated from Chinese by Arthur Waley, and it was orchestrated by Aaron Copland in 1922 --one of my favourites of his is: Rodeo, Hoe-Down



Old Poem

At fifteen I went with the army,
At fourscore I came home.
On the way I met a man from the village,
I asked him who there was at home.
“That over there is your house,
All covered over with trees and bushes.--
Rabbits had run in at the dog-hole,
Pheasants flew down from the beams of the roof.
In the courtyard was growing some wild grain;
And by the well, some wild mallows.
I’ll boil the grain and make porridge,
I’ll pluck the mallows and make soup.
Soup and porridge are both cooked,
But there is no-one to eat them with.
I went out and looked towards the east,
While tears fell and wetted my clothes.

It poured rain yesterday. It was a soft day with grey sky cover. The rain hopped off the ground, people’s footsteps squelched as they hurried for cars. Brave birds flew under handmade tree-leaf umbrellas while trees trembled under the wet onslaught. Write a children’s poem, a picture book filler, light a smile, draw down a rainbow, help the season throw off its showers.

Composed by Mari Fitzpatrick

Are you in love? Are you in hate? Are you angry? Joyful? Do you write poetry and do you suffer for it? Can you find an idea here? Did I manage to help you find a spark? I hope so.

Composed by Nonnie Augustine

When I taught school, inevitable giddiness would infect students, whether they were child or adult (I taught, and loved teaching, both), as the weather warmed, the days got longer, the flowers bloomed -- all that. Have you felt this in Spring? This ineffable joy?

Composed by Nonnie Augustine

April is the birthday month for my mother and my younger brother. They have both left my earth, but they remain close to my spirit and I have written about each of them many times. Is there an April person for you? Can you write about whoever it is?

Composed by Nonnie Augustine

Wonder

Write a poem about a famous painting. Put yourself into the scene as an observer and take stock of everything you see, hear and feel.

Extend your descriptions as fully as you can, then shape them to best effect.

Composed by Bill West

Find an item in your home or remember a lost item, perhaps from childhood, and imagine a new history for the item, how it came into someone else's possession and how they felt. Alternatively, retell how this item came into your possession and how it made you feel.

Composed by Bill West

April showers can turn to heavy downpours, loosening protective vegetation, and run off water can erode soil with rapid flows removing soil and vegetation to considerable depth forming rills and gullies. Unstopped, land degradation causes the loss of nature’s sustainable production balance.

Write a poem about erosion either physical, or emotional.

Composed by Bill West

Prompt: Diamonds Sparkle The optical qualities of diamond can only be brought out by cutting and polishing the natural facets within it. They sparkle, scintillate, shine, glint... Make a spider chart of synonyms and things that sparkle.

POEM: What makes April one of the brightest months of all?

Composed by Oonah Joslin

Diamonds are Forever Greeks called them 'adamas’, indestructible and they have become a symbol of everlasting love. Diamonds were said to enhance beauty in women (Venus) because they are incomparable and courage in men because they are tough (Mars). There are many aspects of the eternal and rebirth interwoven with April. In Christianity there is the resurrection and ascension, and the Greeks saw April as the time when Persephone, queen of the Hades came back to the over-world and brought with her, a renewal of life and light. We don’t even know who Eostre, who gave her name to Easter, really was. Bede mentioned her but gave no details, yet she is somehow forever with us, bound up with our celebrations and we’ll never know precisely how.

POEM: Write a Hymn, Ode or Sonnet with the working Title '!Forever April' You can change that to suit what emerges.

Composed by Oonah Joslin

Rarity and Value I always think spring flowers and blossom as the best, colour and cheer being hard to come by in Winter, is followed by a riot of colour and these flowers have their own antifreeze you know, they are tough too. Takes more than a bit of snow or frost to kill a daffodil.

POEM: Write a bouquet. Could be a bunch of haiku or a haibun. Could be a Villanelle. Give it strength. Give it form. Give it colour. A bunch of spring flowers is worth so much more than any diamond.

Composed by Oonah Joslin

Let’s begin with some words associated with April: Aries, diamond, fire, red/pink, daisies, cherry, blackthorn/ blossom (April’s showers bring may flowers), Mars and Venus, Persephone, Eostre, The Fool (tarot) = courage curiosity openness adventure/naivety careless aimless rash, resurrection, life, renewal, hope, joy.

You might like to make a spider chart of some of these to generate some colours, smells, tastes and ideas to use in your poems.

Prompt: Diamond in the rough is to write an acrostic poem, that is a poem where each line begins with a letter of the word but remember it also has to be associated (at least in your own mind) with April as well as diamonds. Each line could be anything from a word to a sentence. It can rhyme or not.
D
I
A
M
O
N
D

Prompt by Oonah Joslin

Prompt: Sticks and Stones will break my bones but names … What can names do?

On the La Caleta beach in Cadiz stones have been named from ancient times, there are numerous groups, and one naming group example is as follows:

By its Shape
The Camel, The Bull, The Turtle, The Baby Owl, The Spur, The Pigs, The Dolphin, The Shark Stone (or The Broken Stone).; The Hedgehogs, King Fish, The Horse Mackerel, Seagull stone, The Blacksmith’s Flagstone, the Spray from the South Land, the Spray from La Caleta Beach

Saved to the body here is the poem by the Irish Poet Brendan Kennelly --17 April 1936 -- 17 October 2021, the subject matter deals with discrimination/bullying:

Can you name the stone being thrown or like Brendan Kennelly in his poem, show the name of the stone being thrown? or write something fun ...

Composed by Mari Fitzpatrick

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The Stones
Brendan Kennelly

Worried mothers bawled her name
To call wild children from their games.

'Nellie Mulcahy! Nellie Mulcahy’
If ye don’t come home,
She’ll carry ye off in her big black bag.’

Her name was fear and fear begat obedience,
But one day she made a real appearance --
A harmless hag with a bag on her back.
When the children heard, they gathered together
And in trice were stalking the little weary traveller --
Ten, twenty, thirty, forty.
Numbers gave them courage
Though, had they known it,
Nellie was more timid by far
Than the timidest there.
Once or twice she turned to look
At the bravado-swollen pack.
Slowly the chant began --

--Nellie Mulcahy! Nellie Mulcahy!
Wicked old woman! Wicked old woman!

One child threw a stone.
Another did likewise.
Soon the little monsters
Were furiously stoning her

Whose name was fear.
When she fell bleeding to the ground,
Whimpering like a beaten pup,
Even then they didn’t give up,
But pelted her like mad.
Suddenly they stopped, looked at
Each other, then at Nellie, lying
On the ground, shivering.

Slowly they withdrew
One by one.

Silence. Silence.
All the stones were thrown.

Between the hedges of their guilt
Cain-children shambled home.

Alone,
She dragged herself up,
Crying in small half-uttered moans,
Limped away across the land,
Black bag on her back,
Agony racking her bones.

Between her and the children,
Like hideous forms of fear

The stones.

The longer hours of daylight are becoming more noticeable. What is hauling the light in and taking the dark out, nothing happens without intention, a clock is changed and immediately there’s a lift in spirit. But sometimes it takes a cameraman or even a poet to focus a spotlight on a cloud.

Copied into the body of this post is a Dickenson poem. It would have been a different flow that she was harvesting from, but there’s some lovely images trapped within the body. Imagine if our world still looked like this. Use her first line ' light exists in spring’ as a springboard for your poem, to tell us what you feel or think about the light effect in our current spring weather.

Composed by Mari Fitzpatrick

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A Light exists in Spring by Emily Dickenson

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period --
When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake.
But Human Nature feels.

It waits upon the Lawn,
It shows the furthest Tree
Upon the furthest Slope you know
It almost speaks to you.

Then as Horizons step
Or Noons report away
Without the Formula of sound
It passes and we stay --

A quality of loss
Affecting our Content
As Trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a Sacrament.

Show the grace and empathy found in the natural world

Sloes are the berries of the blackthorn, the flowering plant that was supposedly used to make Christ’s Crown of Thorns, it’s a beautiful light yellow wood with a dark heart and small white flowers that light up the spring hedgerows. Folklore tells us that when Jesus was dying on the cross a group of swallows began to remove the thorns to alleviate his suffering. Sloes are used to make gin and over the years the blackthorn was used in a wealth of remedies including tonics and syrups that ‘cleansed the blood’, aided digestive complaints and eased rheumatism. These tonics and syrups made use of the blackthorn’s bark, flowers and fruit; Christs’ persecutors made use of its thorns.

As we move into Easter week let’s visit some of the folklore associated with one of the greatest stories ever told. For example it’s been written that the head of the ‘violet’ droops because the shadow of the cross fell on it, a brown Robin removed the nails from Jesus’s palms and got splashed by blood then a Magpie found the nails and put them back as a Lapwing flew by screeching ‘crucify him crucify him' … But today is Palm Sunday