cloudy sunrises painted with billowing birdsong

LuminescentAnt · 2026-03-21T17:50:22Z

https://i.imgur.com/vZWaYcT.jpeg nobody seems to be grateful for the sun. we will forget the warm rays one day, brush it off like a dust-coated box. I cannot forget it. I have been poisoned by figments of ice and snow, inconsequentially carving my nails into the ice, making no sculpture, no shape. everyone remembers the sun at sunrise. there have been moments in the morning as the darkness cascades into light, and I am stagnant, the light being the only movement. the shift from dark to light is never a moment, as a moment is a slip, a trip, a breath, but it is time. I’ve always felt the resonance of the birds chirping, like a flame in the back of my mind. one day I will hear its full song, and it will be beautiful, or it will be blinding. Goals: sun Write at least 30 poems, one poem per day sun Read peoples' poetry sun Subscribe to threads sun Comment actual things in peoples' threads sun Attempt to write good poetry and have fun Previously on Ant's NaPos... https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewtopic.php?f=196&t=116029 - NaPo 2025 https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewtopic.php?f=466&t=115708 - NaPoWeek 2024 https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewtopic.php?f=406&t=115019 - NaPo 2024

herb

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Mon Apr 20, 2026 2:49 am

herb says... · Mon Apr 20, 2026 2:49 am

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21. 24. 17.

beautiful. no notes. you are an AMAZING poet-- something about the breathiness that you carry visually within the poem is stunning.

keep up the great work, ant!

[soon, i will submit myself to the stars]

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LuminescentAnt

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Tue Apr 21, 2026 3:56 am

LuminescentAnt says... · Tue Apr 21, 2026 3:56 am

~ april 20th ~

27. i sink

i am tied to the mast of this
boat of apology.
the sea is chopping,
and i speak these words to you
but not for you.

i will say sorry
as hard as i can,
but i cannot unhear
the ring of your voice, leaping on the walls.

like any other sickening, normal human,
i want to be in control.
i want to feel like
my footprints have meaning,
like i can
shift your current's direction-
something only a strong gust
of wind can initiate.

i wish i had strength.
maybe i drained it all to
someone else,
or i poured it into some
useless ocean.
maybe some day i'll
dive overboard,
finding it somewhere,
reeling it back.

some day i will have the will
to do more than drown.

Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do.

- Ms. Marvel

LuminescentAnt ~ Lum ~ Ant
(she/her)

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LuminescentAnt

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Wed Apr 22, 2026 3:26 am

LuminescentAnt says... · Wed Apr 22, 2026 3:26 am

~ april 21st ~

28. wilt

i hope i have never
made someone cry.
my mother might have
once teared after
the teases of me and my father,
but she has always been
sensitive,
easy to wilt but not to break.

i suppose i will never know.
i myself have
accustomed myself to wet cheeks
that i do not remember if anyone
was ever the cause of them.

i think the one who has
made me cry the most was always
myself.
i think.
strange to think how you
indefinitely inflict pain
without meaning to.

i do not know who i would be
if i had never shed a single tear.
and i do not know if
i truly flush out pain
when i leak tears.

maybe i do not truly
discover something
as my vision fills with liquid.
maybe
i was born to wilt.

Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do.

- Ms. Marvel

LuminescentAnt ~ Lum ~ Ant
(she/her)

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alliyah

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Thu Apr 23, 2026 12:54 am

alliyah says... · Thu Apr 23, 2026 12:54 am

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Hey Ant! Back again!

The image of a boat as a metaphor for an apology and how the waves still rage around even when the speaker is holding on is really smart. Forgiveness doesn't necessarily mean forgetting, and often means returning again and again! I like your exploration of those themes in that one - very interesting, reflective, and great imagery too!

Your haiku poems were really nice too! This was a favorite:

fragile, i shatter
break into dried clay, fracture,
return to earth form.

Awesome work this month, I think you're keeping up with poem a day? You're getting near the end! Keep it up! You've got this.

you should know i am a time traveler &
there is no season as achingly temporary as now

but i have promised to return

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LuminescentAnt

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Thu Apr 23, 2026 3:11 am

LuminescentAnt says... · Thu Apr 23, 2026 3:11 am

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@alliyah thank you so much again! It means a lot <333

~ april 23rd ~

30. dormant

strange that
rest is for all,
but not all take it.
strange how we all get dreams,
and not a key to what they mean.

let me lie here,
smoking some cigarette of tranquility,
wafting, drifting smoke,
careless and meaningless.

i want to rest
and do what
a human can always do.

Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do.

- Ms. Marvel

LuminescentAnt ~ Lum ~ Ant
(she/her)

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LuminescentAnt

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Sat Apr 25, 2026 3:50 am

LuminescentAnt says... · Sat Apr 25, 2026 3:50 am

~ april 24th ~

31. yearning, as a process of nature

(and did you sigh
as you felt her body without
holding it?
she had not even bloomed beneath you,
and you caressed the flower.)

i want to be in a world
where i am not so afraid
of this mirage of love,
of this illusion of happiness,
its roots in
soil of malicious desire.

(she is so beautiful,
isn't she?
maybe you'll never love her,
not that she needs your love.)

we never shed this.
this, this wanting of the
feeling of the petals
before the bloom.
even i feel it as
my skin shivers.
and it is so bestially human.

Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do.

- Ms. Marvel

LuminescentAnt ~ Lum ~ Ant
(she/her)

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LuminescentAnt

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Sat Apr 25, 2026 4:05 am

LuminescentAnt says... · Sat Apr 25, 2026 4:05 am

*okay so apparently I wrote this haiku on this day but I forgot to post it and it just saved in drafts so I'm posting it now

~ april 22nd ~

29. unbound

unbound, you are safe.
no love in hand, no tied knots,
unattached, flying.

Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do.

- Ms. Marvel

LuminescentAnt ~ Lum ~ Ant
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LuminescentAnt

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Sun Apr 26, 2026 4:00 am

LuminescentAnt says... · Sun Apr 26, 2026 4:00 am

~ april 25th ~

32. a still pond

i wonder if i will ever feel like
a still pond without ripples.
tranquil, quiet, i will be in
pure bliss with nature.

i wonder what it will be like
to feel unmovable,
to feel unable to drift.
maybe that is happiness.

or maybe it is some sort of
fulfillment of a dream.
even if it is as partial as
the glowing moon,
it is still happiness.

perhaps i do not know
what my dream is.

Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do.

- Ms. Marvel

LuminescentAnt ~ Lum ~ Ant
(she/her)

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LuminescentAnt

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Sun Apr 26, 2026 9:09 pm

LuminescentAnt says... · Sun Apr 26, 2026 9:09 pm

~ april 26th ~

33. A = πr2

i want to be
more than an equation.
it's funny to push me around,
because i provide exactly what you want.
[throw at me this + that =
the face that makes you laugh]

i want to be
more than a function.
you can always trace me,
find my intercepts,
plot the vertex,
and i will always curve the same.
[no matter how hard i try,
i = you x everything + my imagination]

i want to be
something you
cannot calculate.
i want to be able to
substitute the variables from your eyes- ///
negate your whispered words- ///
factor out some meaning behind my existence.

maybe then i can
approach the limit.
once i can add it all up,
i can control it all,
every degree-----
every perimeter-----
every multiple of pi-----

then i can
= some real number.

Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do.

- Ms. Marvel

LuminescentAnt ~ Lum ~ Ant
(she/her)

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LuminescentAnt

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Sun Apr 26, 2026 9:43 pm

LuminescentAnt says... · Sun Apr 26, 2026 9:43 pm

~ april 26th ~

34. amicitia

cicero says the sharing of true affection
is limited to few friends.
i complain about the lasting april cold,
long after people said they
couldn't wait to remove their sweaters.

i wonder if people worry about the ones who
sit at draft-filled seats at lunch.
i wonder if i am crazy to hope
someone holds as much empathy as me;
or if i am crazy to think i care
more about others than myself.

i've tried to become that person.
laughs like ripples in the lake,
and the pushing out of myself,
like a groundhog from the burrow
when it is time for spring.
i remember why i was so afraid in the first place,
probably because i stumble easier when i sprint.

i think my biggest fear
is bringing nothing to amicitia,
i fear the day i drain all my love,
and like a floating, hollow shell,
i will only echo.

Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do.

- Ms. Marvel

LuminescentAnt ~ Lum ~ Ant
(she/her)

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LuminescentAnt

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Tue Apr 28, 2026 3:25 am

LuminescentAnt says... · Tue Apr 28, 2026 3:25 am

~ april 27th ~

35. the climb to be fruitless

i wonder what it will be like
when i reach the summit.
where the cars are
tinier than my fingertips.
where the birdsong feels
more distant than
a drifting echo.

i wonder if the peak really exists.
will i feel fulfilled,
will my thirst be quenched with
the snow's kiss on my skin,
will i feel that feeling
of being able to step down
lighter than how i stepped up?

(perhaps i am already at
the zenith.
perhaps i have reached that feeling
of taking up the biggest space in the world,
of having all the air for myself to breathe.)

are we all searching for this apex,
claiming the climb to be fruitless,
when it is the sweat
that runs the river.

Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do.

- Ms. Marvel

LuminescentAnt ~ Lum ~ Ant
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LuminescentAnt

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Wed Apr 29, 2026 3:17 am

LuminescentAnt says... · Wed Apr 29, 2026 3:17 am

~ april 28th ~

36. fortitude

strength, given like rain,
i falter, like damp wood, split.
i float out, useless.

Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do.

- Ms. Marvel

LuminescentAnt ~ Lum ~ Ant
(she/her)

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LuminescentAnt

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Thu Apr 30, 2026 3:41 am

LuminescentAnt says... · Thu Apr 30, 2026 3:41 am

~ april 29th ~

37. beneath fingertips

she searches for that velvet skin,
like some marble under the dead leaves.
her eyes remain glossy, shining,
for every light that touches her.

she is met by syrupy slowness,
it sticks to edges like strings,
and it moves like a lazy river.
she is caught in the thick viscosity.

perhaps, once or twice, she felt a
prickly surface.
like a bed of thorns, it drank her blood,
under the guise of silky petal.
she felt shock, or maybe simply anger.

at last she did not mind the sandpaper.
it was rough and smoothed fingerprints,
but she did not bleed.
it was dry, and perhaps
never cold.

Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do.

- Ms. Marvel

LuminescentAnt ~ Lum ~ Ant
(she/her)

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LuminescentAnt

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Fri May 01, 2026 2:35 am

LuminescentAnt says... · Fri May 01, 2026 2:35 am

~ april 30th ~

38. denouement

i feel
this slope declining.
the stormy sky feels distant,
the smell of waves stronger.

we say, it is the end.
but it is only the mountains of our mind
that find the fading of the trail.

the clouds never stop moving.

no matter how long i feel a held hand,
there is some everlasting warmth
beneath it all.

somewhere i haven't looked.

i've scorned mirrors as long as i've longed
to see something in them.
maybe the puddle ripples,
maybe the braids fray,
maybe the hill descends,
but my blood flow is constant.

there is another page at the end of the book.

Last edited by LuminescentAnt on Fri May 01, 2026 1:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do.

- Ms. Marvel

LuminescentAnt ~ Lum ~ Ant
(she/her)

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lalalucky

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Fri May 01, 2026 2:39 am

lalalucky says... · Fri May 01, 2026 2:39 am

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your poetry expresses emotion and passion so wonderfully through metaphors & similes (ex: i falter, like damp wood, split. / i float out, useless.), and imagery (she searches for that velvet skin, / like some marble under the dead leaves)! i particularly found april 26th's poem clever-- to incorporate math in such way in poetry is a unique way to communicate through abstract ways, such as making lines an explained puzzle in the the brackets while utilizing math symbols to do so, while not being completely direct to the reader.

"i want to be
something you
cannot calculate.
i want to be able to
substitute the variables from your eyes- ///
negate your whispered words- ///
factor out some meaning behind my existence."

has got to be my favorite portion in that poem! as it becomes more direct about its honesty, the slashes makes the lines more "cut up" and "abrupt", adding a distortion to amplify the heaviness. it's just so splendid! though, much of these poems within this thread are overall lovely, and just so great!

--- and as the last poem has been now posted after i tried submitting this comment, i've now gotten a chance to read it and i can just say. day april 30's poem is just so beautiful-- it's lovely how broadly it can apply to many things, but very much ties into the thread itself as it is, well, actually ending. so great!!

sunny

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