Day 24 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2026 / Stafford 98

Greetings once more, friends! My poem today is #98 in this year's Stafford Challenge (and #463, including last year's Stafford Challenge poem count). Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “Today, we challenge you to write your own poem that takes place at night, and describes something magical or strange that happens but that no one is awake (or around) to notice.” Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day suggestion: “For today's prompt, write an unidentified poem.” Let me do something different today and give you a photo first. To whet your appetite for later. Photo Source Okay, now on to the poems. I'm happy today to combine the two prompts in two poems — both prompts in both poems — which I'm grouping together as a single poem with two titled sections. Strange Night Tankas             “Spring Riddle” Dark flying creature swooping under stars, her long winter sleep done, makes a baby with sperm she saved since fall . . . skin wings swoosh unseen.             “Moon Gardens” Moonflower vines bloom white at night, beckoning bats, Luna Moths, Sphinx Moths, and other mysterious creatures to scatter pollen. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Bat and flower (Photo Source) If not for the "unidentified" prompt, however, I probably would have given the first tanka a straightforward title like "Little Brown Bat in Iowa Spring" and have it be a poem on its own. (A single tanka is usually not titled, though, so that's something to [re]consider.) The second tanka, separated out, would probably still be "Moon Gardens," but it could be expanded later into a multiple-tanka sequence. Actually, maybe both sections could become separate tanka sequences, in which case the presence of the title(s) would be defensible. We'll see. Oh! The info in the first tanka is all true with the Little Brown Bat . . . the delayed fertilization is pretty trippy. Today, Alan has an interesting approach to the prompts with a poem in six-line stanzas (sestets) in tail rhyme or maybe rime couee, both rhymed aabccb — however all in pentameter, rather than the varied line lengths usually associated with those forms. P O E M   R E M O V E D while being submitted for publication.   Please come back later. The poem may return at some time in the future. Thank you!     About this poem, Alan told me, "There is really a Mothman Statue in Point Pleasant." And there it is up above, red eyes and all. Go up and look at it again. Be sure to click on it to see it larger. And pinch it wider to see it even better. That's a great yarn, Alan! It is a yarn, right? Photo Source Incidentally, the Elizabeth Bishop allusion that this poem is not, is to her poem "The Man-Moth" (though that's worth looking at for another magical creature — or man?). Thanks for visiting the blog, dear readers. See you again tomorrow? Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ