On this fifth Monday of March, here’s a musical prompt for your poetry. Listen to this two and a half minute piece of music and post a poem in the comments below.
National Poetry Month starts on Wednesday and many of us will be engaged in the April Poem-a-Day Challenge. As we’ll be inundated with daily prompts, I’m going to take the next four Mondays off. The Living Poetry Prompt will return on May the Fourth with something visual.
Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
Living Poetry 
Here’s my entry 💜
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by Maggie | March 30, 2026, 10:00 AMHow nice. Love the “where sound becomes memory, / and memory becomes / a kind of presence” Thanks for sharing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by Bartholomew Barker | March 30, 2026, 7:40 PMGet off me!
GET OFF ME!
Let me be.
Get off me.
Can’t you see?
Get off me!
Flee! Flee! I must flee!
Panic coursing through my veins.
This is driving me insane.
Get off me!
Let me be.
This will not be my end.
Over the edge, you will not send.
Get off me!
Let me be.
Get off me.
Can’t you see?
Someone else can be your clown.
In this, I will not drown.
Get off me!
Let me be.
GET OFF ME!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Posted by Chico’s Mom | March 30, 2026, 1:20 PMWow! Didn’t expect that reaction to that piece. That’s why I enjoy presenting you all with these musical prompts. Thanks for sharing, Jolene!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by Bartholomew Barker | March 30, 2026, 7:43 PMThank you 💕
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by Chico’s Mom | March 30, 2026, 8:45 PMGreat to have a musical prompt -thank you 😊https://poetisatinta.wordpress.com/2026/04/01/musical-poetry-prompt/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by poetisatinta | March 31, 2026, 7:04 PMI especially liked the silence bending to let wonder in. Thanks for sharing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by Bartholomew Barker | March 31, 2026, 8:07 PMThanks 💜
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by poetisatinta | April 1, 2026, 2:52 AM