April Is The [Fill in Your Own Adjective Here]-est Month

Image of the day:  Red nibs of tulips slipping through the earth.




Happy April 1st!  Which means it's also National Poetry month wherein poets have their own sort of marathon and try to write a poem a day.  I will be trying that as well and luckily I can write that since I've written today's poem.  Not gonna worry though if I don't make it through--it is really enough to write one poem. 


Also, it is the Big Poetry Give-away and yes, I'm going to participate in that as well once I can figure out what book I have to part with.  I was going to give Blowout by Denise Duhamel away, but I started to read it and now can't put it down.  I  may still give it away, heartbreakingly.  I will also be giving one or two (and perhaps my brand-new chapbook The Ornithologist Poems, which is in production) of my chapbooks away.  So stay tuned for that announcement.


I'm trying to read several books of poems at once:  I've got Kelli Russel Agodon's Hourglass Museum, which is amazing and full of lists that I want to try and riff on.  Also, When My Brother Was An Aztec by Natalie Diaz, which is, well, you need to go read some of those poems right now.


There are several ways of celebrating poetry this month--readings and putting poems in your pockets to share at a moment's notice and writing oulipo poems or taking a chapbook challenge. 


So choose whatever poetry potion you'd like and take a big swig. 




Although the wind
blows terribly here,
the moonlight also leaks
between the roof planks
of this ruined house.

Izumi Shikibu (Japan, 974?-1034?)

[translated by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani]