2026 NaPM 25 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 the Mashriq, or Arabia, Mesopotamia, the Levant, Egypt, and Sudan.

[dukealien]

Intersection


Middle of the “Middle East” as it once was
known is neither Cairo nor Memphis, Egypt,
and those gates of Babylon in the Fertile
Crescent do not guard the spot, either.  We must
look, instead, nearer

to the Middle Sea, where all armies, marching,
must turn left or right at a corner west and
just a few miles south of the Golan Heights called
Megiddo, that is,

Armageddon where all the nations, past and
future meet to suffer defeat or win a
war which always promises, like their battle,
to be the last, but isn’t.