Today's Verse Love Host, Jessica, Sherburn encourages us to wrap up this intense month of writing with reflection on our writing process and our plans going forward.
Long, long ago, they had a bit of give in order to be close-fitting jeggings, in a pre-Covid style popular before some of us (me) put on a few. I have appreciated that stretch and have used every bit of it for a while now. But, the now overstretched dust rag hangs limply along the knees and sags mightily along the derriere. The zipper is stuck, so I just pull them up and down and hope. It was time.
I could no longer read the brand and your guess of the size is as good as mine. I think they came from Marshalls, so that is where I began the hunt. I was feeling pretty confident as I have been eating clean and exercising vigorously and I filled my cart with 6 pairs in various sizes and hews and levels of waist-band give, but clearly jeggings are no more.
That first pair was so loose, I was dancing in the booth and singing the praises of exercise, The second pair, same size, did not clear my knees. The third pair would have been perfect if I was in the circus. After 6 failures, I did the walk of shame back to the racks and tried again.
One pair was clearly designed, and not marked, for pre-pubescent girls. Two, maybe three pairs were great except the zippers and modesty aspect. I was pretty discouraged, but walked in shame once more and found just 2 more pairs, hoping but not hopeful, and clearly exhausted.
I walked in shame, one more time, to my car in my paper-thin antiques wondering how anyone could order jeans that would fit on Amazon. My poor old jeans must have been even more traumatized about the fitting room adventure than I was as they gave up the fight right in the parking lot!
I wrapped my sweatshirt around my waist and headed home hoping the neighbors would not see me as I did the walk of shame into the house.
Today's Verse Love Host, Dave Wooley, asks us to think about the points of distraction that you encounter or different ways that you present yourself to the world (teacher voice, text voice, bill collector voice…). My first thought today went to my own multiple, intersecting identities which is a stretch from Dave's prompt but how I really see myself these days as apart-time professor, sporratic aquacise teacher, and grandma-on-call with a focus on enjoying this chapter of life.
Today's Verse Love Host, Clayton (Boxer) Moon, asks us to consider home. It’s where we’re from, where we belong. He asks us to show this favorite place and then, use line breaks and to create a poem. After a nomadic life, I did live in a home on top of a mountain where my children grew up and there were happy times; yet, the when I go back there now, painful memories overpower any sense of home.
Yet, there is a place of sanctuary where I have always felt secure and as if I belong. As I look back now, I am not sure how I braved those hikes with little children and their their mountain bikes, but we talked about the very real dangers that come with very magical memories. Perhaps I really do have my roots in Minnewaska, now a state park in NY.
Today's Verse Love Host, Ashey Valencia-PateI, invites us to write about a topic you feel you need to speak about. Slam poems often include a performance piece so focus on rich language, emotions, mood and a call to action. My mind was literally exploding with topics I feel very strongly about including the widespread deceptions and blatant lies we are supposed to accept as normal I could also write about the need to include not just phonics but also to embrace writing time in our elementary classrooms or my concern that fresh fruits and vegetables will soon be the privy of only the upper class. Perhaps it is because they are disturbing the peace even as it rains this afternoon, but I am writing about the incredibly annoying scourge of suburbia in America that has evaded quieter electric versions as well as my hope to return to yards with a more natural, whatever that might be, feel.
Today's Verse Love Host, Denise Krebs, asks us to choose a poem and write the first word of each line in a column down the side of your page. Then, write a free verse poem letting the other poet’s words carry you. I am choosing words from a poem I found inspiring in the April 2026 Poetry, won't you celebrate with me, by Lucille Clifton. I am writing my poem as a sort of sequel to Denise's brave and inspiring poem this morning, The Day After We Bombed Iran.
Today's Host at Verse Love is Margaret Simon whose poems about nature have long started my days. She asks us to choose an animal you would like to write about. Find a sample of their sound and write a poem that uses onomatopoeia in a creative way.
It was a dark and dreary morning, but I snuck outside for a bit of springtime and coffee on the porch anyway. I was mesmerized by the questions posed by my Great Horned Owl as if he knew this was Earth Day!
