The Story Behind In Bloom For National Poetry Month

April holds a special kind of energy. A sense of renewal that feels more earned than gifted. It’s no coincidence that April is also National Poetry Month, a celebration that began in the US and has since stretched far beyond, inviting people across the globe to slow down and reconnect with language, feeling, and imagination. It can go under the hashtags #NPM #NPM25 #NationalPoetryMonth #NaPoWriMo

Poetry isn’t just for poets

It’s for anyone who finds themselves pausing at a line that resonates, who has scribbled thoughts in the margins of their notebook, or felt a truth land through someone else’s words. It’s for educators, readers, daydreamers, and, unexpectedly, artists like me.

As someone who illustrates poems (as well cats and many other things), I meet it halfway. My work lives in the space between the seen and the said. I don’t write the poems, that’s Natasha’s gift, but I sit with them, feel them, and respond through colour, shape, and texture. Together, we’re Creative Bubbles by The Randoms, an artist-poet duo brought together through a long-standing friendship and now bringing our respective creativity together. We’ve been creating in our respective corners for literally years. So it felt quite natural to create a place to combine our work.

A mood of in between

This year, I’m marking National Poetry Month through our piece In Bloom. It’s a poem with surprises. One that hums rather than sings. There’s no grand proclamation or dramatic arc. Instead, it rests in a space many of us know well, where dreams blur with waking, where stillness holds confusion but also comfort.

Complementing

Illustrating this poem was a process. I didn’t want to overpower the poem’s softness, but I also didn’t want to make it too pretty. Because the heart of the piece is … well that’s for the reader to decide.

Using Procreate and Impasto brushes, I leaned into texture. I wanted the petals to have weight and presence, like they’d had to push their way into existence. There’s richness in the reds, softness in the paler florals, and a background of warmth with orange hues that don’t overpower – at least that was my idea.

CONNECTION COUNTS

National Poetry Month gives me a moment to share this kind of work not for display, but for connection. It invites a different kind of engagement. I guess it’s one that asks people to feel first, and interpret later. Poetry reminds us that not everything needs a neat resolution. Sometimes, it’s enough to simply notice, to sit alongside an image or a verse, hopefully both, and let it affect you.

OUR GIFT

We’re not selling these pieces. They’re here as offerings to anyone browsing and needing a pause, a spark, or simply a reminder that being human isn’t always plain sailing.

If you’ve enjoyed this piece and want to see more of our work before anyone else, you can subscribe to our mailing list. We’ll be sharing new poems and illustrations in the coming weeks and months. Our works are sometimes tender, sometimes bold, but always honest.