April Is for Poems
We are standing at the cusp of the Equinox and of National Poetry Writing Month. 30 poems in 3o days of April….give or take. Oliver Burkeman suggests approaching 30 Day Challenges imperfectly. He offers 5 free days out of the 30. I’m more inclined to agree with Laura Vanderkam, that three days a week is a habit. Though maybe for the Challenge I’ll aim more for Oliver’s numbers!
Last year Renee Emerson took part, and I was happy to watch her progress from afar. She wrote about
- tips and tricks for sustaining a month of writing
- a reflection after the month of writing was over
- and a report, that after such a fertile month, May included less writing
In April I will be working through Write a Poem a Day: 30 Prompts to Unleash Your Imagination by Sage Cohen. The book is filled with links to master poems and other inspiration. This morning I read Ed Hirsch on epistolary poems, a new-to-me poem by Langston Hughes that I can share with the kids in my co-op, and a poem by Li-Young Lee. Which led me back to the notebooks to write a poem in conversation with a poem from Holly Wren Spaulding’s Familiars. And back to the notebook is the place all poets want to go.
If you purchase Write a Poem a Day by March 31, Sage Cohen is offering a free revision workshop at the beginning of May. (Just send her a photo of your receipt, and she’ll send an invitation to the workshop.) This is an outstanding opportunity to walk a couple of poems through to a more finished state. If you’d like to get a taste of Sage’s style, including a checklist for revision, her website offers a few free resources.
To get Poetry Month started off right, here is a collection of posts about our every day poetry practice. And if you send me your mailing address, I’ll send you a poetry postcard. You can leave your address in the comments or send it via email (kortneymgarrison {at} gmail.com). I’d love to know if you’ll be using Sage’s prompts as well!