For National Poetry Month

Official National Poetry Month Poster, April 2025, Poets.org/nationalpoetrymonth

Click to Listen to This Blogpost Below

🎉April is National Poetry Month! In years past, I have celebrated by writing a poem a day, sharing some of my favorite poets and poems, and highlighting children’s poetry. 📚

This year, I’m sharing readings of my poems from our illustrated memoir, Hope Like Sunlight. Is this shameless book promotion? Perhaps. Marketing and selling a book about a childhood cancer journey, even one whose profits benefit two amazing organizations — St. Jude & Ronald McDonald House — has proven challenging. 🎗️

Beyond book promotion, sharing my readings is a personal glimpse at what my family’s life was and is today, during and after childhood cancer. More than that, it shines a light on two things I care about deeply and hope others care about too: the health of our children and families, and the healing power of poetry.

Hope Like Sunlight contains 52 poems, all of them written from January of 2023 as Sadie was beginning cancer treatments at St. Jude — through the fall of 2024, after we came home and Sadie reached the amazing milestone of 1 year NED: No Evidence of Disease. I initially arranged them into a poetry manuscript, seeking out editors at literary publications interested in publishing them as a full-length poetry book. After a few rejections, and then an acceptance — I found myself looking at a poetry book contract.

Above: Hope Like Sunlight Poetry Readings Playlist on YouTube

I remember looking at that contract and feeling something wasn’t right. It was a moment I should’ve been celebrating, a moment every writer works for, and rarely (or perhaps never) receives. I know. I’ve been following “the writing dream” for the last ten years, with small successes and many failures along the way. Writers know the drill. Submit it and forget it, start something new, keep writing, keep revising, then do it all over again. ✍️

But I knew that this first contract, this publisher, wasn’t right. I looked at Sadie, and understood why. This was Sadie’s, and our family’s story — and it wasn’t only poetry. Our journey through and beyond cancer has been sprinkled with different types of art and communication with people worldwide.

And so, the book took a new shape: a memoir with Sadie’s illustrations, our letters, and my poetry. And the best part? I found Bell Asteri Publishing, a nonprofit publisher supporting childhood cancer organizations who is allowing us to give all the profits to the places that have supported us most: St. Jude and Ronald McDonald House. 🎗️

Above: Excerpt from Hope Like Sunlight (PDF), Bell Asteri Publishing, Dec 25 2024. Available in Paperback & Hardcover Editions.

The poems could still make up a book of their own. In fact, I’m considering publishing them myself in their own volume. (Yes or No? Drop me a comment!) But I think, and hope readers agree, that I made the right decision in reimagining our story as a memoir of poetry, art and letters.

And I hope you’ll listen to some of my poetry readings, then share them and Hope Like Sunlight with others. These poems, our story, and the stories of so many kids and families still fighting battles together against childhood cancer — are my heart and ongoing motivation to help find cures.

Thank you for reading, and for listening. You can also find my poetry readings on our TikTok Channel, along with art, songs and bookish things. 💛📚🎶🎨

In hope,

Stacie