Day 13 of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) 

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt:

Donald Justice’s poem, “There is a gold light in certain old paintings,” plays with both art and music, and uses an interesting and (as far as I know) self-invented form. His six-line stanzas use lines of twelve syllables, and while they don’t use rhyme, they repeat end words. Specifically, the second and fourth line of each stanza repeat an end-word or syllable; the fifth and sixth lines also repeat their end-word or syllable. Today, we challenge you to write a poem that uses Justice’s invented form.

And so:

Pink Moon

April’s full moon – the Pink Moon – lights the sky tonight.
Its name evokes spring flowers: creeping phlox, moss pink.
Where I live the red flowering currant blooms now. 
Amongst shrubs with still bare branches, a pop of pink.
    I stepped outside to view the moon. It wasn’t there.
    I’ll check later. Perhaps it’s neither here nor there.


Flowering currants are first to bloom in my yard
of native species. Osoberry comes on next.
Its small pale blossoms don’t make nearly the same splash.
Oregon grape blooms next, and then the next, and next.
     The Pink Moon is not pink; the red currant blooms are.
     I’d check again, but cat-in-lap says no, so here we are.