2026 NaPM 11 April

[RiverNotch]

Write a poem for National Poetry Month based on the topic described....rather, write a poem set in, pertaining to, or inspired by the given region, whether its entirety or just some part of it, as this year's prompts are going to be unified by the theme "Around the World" like last year's prompts were unified by the theme "Esoterica". Each poem should appear as a separate reply to this thread. There are three levels of participation:

Bronze. Participated at least once.

Silver. Participated every day.

Gold. Participated every day, with all entries either being the same form (e.g., every one a sonnet) or being distinct forms (e.g., no two haiku).


Today's region is Southern Europe.

[RiverNotch]

Shakespeare's Italy


Padua and Messina, on the opposite
ends of the country, are for madcap lovers
who spit both bile and honey at each other

in equal measure. Florence and Sicily also
are found on two different poles, and yet they both
serve very similar roles: where fairy tales

receive their resolutions bittersweet.
Naples betrays Milan, but when in exile
the northern mark forgives the southern cheat.

Venice is where all kinds of people prosper
by piling on one injustice after another,
while in Verona thrive the kind of lovers

whose stars never seem to align, predestined either
the man to betray the woman for his alter
or, for love's sake, the two themselves to murder.

Finally there is Rome. The eternal city,
it never did move on from former glory:
togas are still in vogue, a senate rules,
and often its high streets are drenched in gules.

[dukealien]

From the Mountains to the Sea


Southern Europe isn’t a founding cradle
of what’s now called “civilization” like the
valleys of the Nile or Euphrates rivers–
more of a boot camp

with a central sea to learn sailing, Spain and
Greece for mountains with their stark hill-men’s  outlook
teaching them to march in grim lines for war and
fight to the finish.

Likewise in philosophy drilling to the
heart of knowledge, ultimate questions, logic...
how are men to govern their living, find the
truth of their being?

[Mark A Becker]

Conquest

The ancient empires of Ottomans,
Romans, and Greeks should tell us

that you can change history
but not human nature.

Geopolitical boundaries change
hands like dirty currency

as civilizations fall into the age old
trap of hubris- who's next?

[wasellajam]

Venice with Peggy and Pollock

My dad was Mr. Midcentury Modern,
Danish furniture and art covered walls
and a family pass to New York's
Museum of Modern Art.

I grew up endlessly spinning
those gift shop color wheels,
accustomed to shapes flying
in the air, puzzling them together
then rearranging.
But I never got Pollock.
Just. Couldn't. Get it.

Then I visited Peggy, what she left.
Eating morning focaccia
in her sculpture garden in
preparation for her palazzo
on Venice's Grand Canal.

Strolling the remnants of a life of choice,
the bric and brac of a well-loved home,
I pause and pause and pause,
at home with the covered walls
but all the works new to me,
making sure to let them imprint.

Then ahead of me a long narrow
high-ceilinged room, one side hung
with a stretched row of huge canvasses.
As I walk the line I'm swimming in emotions, all of them, changing
from piece to piece, building,
piling on until by the end
I've lived it all.

Thanks, Peggy, for the gift of Jackson.