Day 30 - Poem-A-Day

April Adieu

So long National Poetry Month-
You were just thirty days out of a year.
You brought heaps of poems
to my email, so many that reading them all
will stretch well into May, when many others
have returned poetry to the back burner.

Gone too will be my open opportunity
to preach the virtues and love of poetry
to the poetically deprived.

Even during your own month, we risk
retribution from many who will not
allow us to share what joy we find
woven into the soul of your many stanzas.

But not all is melancholy today-
No, today too ends the Poem-A-Day
challenge I undertook at the onset.
To take a predetermined prompt
for which I have not control
and mold it into a single, artful, cohesive
poetic unit each day.

Even the love of poetry-
yes, even a driving passion for writing
cannot prevent such an undertaking
from taxing the mind and sometimes
in the late hours of the night,
the body as well.

So, goodbye poetry month. So long
for now. I shall not stop reading
what many great poetic minds created.
I will turn to you over and over
throughout the year. And probably
after a momentary pause,
I'll return to the page with ink
and write from that place deep
within the human spirit
where poetry is born.

Maybe, just maybe-
come next April, in a weak moment,
I may forget how difficult
the daily birthing process
of creating these poems was
and again accept the challenge
of a poem-a-day.

Poetry & Silence

"Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them." ~ Charles Simic

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They're here!

For the third year in a row I've produced a Poetry Month broadside featuring one of my poems that has been previously published elsewhere. They have finally arrived from the printers. I have 100 of them and they are available at your request as long as they last. If you would like one of these please drop me a note with your snail mail address at stickpoet@aol.com. It's just a little something I started doing to celebrate poetry.

Technorati Tags: poetry month broadsides

Poem-A-Day Challenge - six poem left

 Counting the poem for today (which I'm still working on) there are 6 remaining  in the April challenge.

I must say that a very badly want to do a free write, without a prompt, without a pre-determined

topic and the pressures that have come with this challenge. Yes, April is the cruelest month!

On another note, I was reading the comments on a post by Kelli and checked out Ouroboros Review  that received a thumbs up by Maya. It has a very professional on line presence. I was truly impressed. I also noticed Deb Scott has a couple of poems in the most recent issue.

Two other reviews I like have releases up...Right Hand Pointing  - issue 25 and  Autumn Sky Poetry - issue 13

Meanwhile, back to the poem I was working on.

Technorati Tags: Autumn Sky Poetry,Ouroboros Review,Right Hand Pointing

What if..

 I suppose one could argue that poetry has become a habitual aspect in my life. Without considering this in a negative connotation  that is often associated with the word habitual, I have up till now viewed this in the context of what I have considered a lifestyle. For several years, I have convinced myself that a poet (or any artist) would only enhance their level of creativity by developing a lifestyle that had a vigilant awareness to their surroundings that allowed them to constantly be open the the poetry in things.

What would follow or at least one would hope-  transforming theory to reality, is that by achieving this poetic point of view, it could only result in good things in connection with their work. If you hand not fully achieved a poetic lifestyle, to the extent you were striving to get there, again would be a positive thing, no?

Perhaps achieving such a state of mental awareness and focus has noting to do with improving the poet's work.  What if it is simply symptomatic of a neurosis?

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Almost Forgot!

Ugh!  I almost forgot to mention that I'm reading tomorrow at the Westport Branch of the K.C Public Library.

118 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO 64111I

4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

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Still Writing

Yes, I've been silent a couple of days, but don't think that I'm not still going on the poem-a-day challenge!  I was sifting through some of them this evening and I can say there are four or five that could have some potential. Yes, there are some really bad ones, but truth is you've got to be willing to put a lot of bad ink on a page to get there.

In poetry news elsewhere, I was delighted to see W S Merwin win a Pulitzer for his book The Shadow of Sirius. I cannot say that I believe the book warrants the prize as I have not read it. But I am very fond of Merwin's work and have nothing but praise for Migration for which he won a National Book Award. I am anxious to read his new one.  You can find an interview for NPR by Terry Gross of Merwin here. Also, Ruth Stone was a runner up this year. I must remember to read some of her work, I haven't read her for a while.

Oh, and three cheers for Sandra Beasley  - 2009 BARNARD WOMEN POETS PRIZE AWARDED TO SANDRA BEASLEY

 

Technorati Tags: W S Merwin,The Shadow Of Sirius,Ruth Stone,Sandra Beasley,Poem-a-day Challenge