Susan Marie Swanson - Art Space

Art Space
by
Susan Marie Swanson


When my brother writes stories late at night
under his blankets with a light,
he hides an entire stadium
under there—
hotdogs for sale,
baseballs slammed through the air—
and Mom doesn’t even care!

But the choir that I sing in
takes a lot of space.
It takes time to get us organized,
everyone in place.
Once we’re all where we belong
we put the words and notes
of our song
where they belong, too.
It’s tricky to do.
But when the piano starts to play,
we tell trouble to fly away.
Our voices are so strong,
they sweep away worry and gloom.
We fill the whole room!

©2011 Susan Marie Swanson. All rights reserved.

---

Can I just say how much I love that Susan Marie Swanson mixed poetry with art and music in Art Space, thus hitting the trifecta for me? Yes, it's my blog, so I can say it! Of course, the fact that it's about so much more - siblings, imagination, baseball, and stadiums under the bedsheets just to name a little - is what truly makes it so wonderful....

Susan's poetry sings... and if you follow the link here and click "Closer Look" you can hear her poem Trouble Fly sung by a children's choir in a piece composed by Patricia McKernon Runkle. And you can by the sheet music, too. How cool is that? Just like last time, when she shared her poem Wonders, I remain a huge fan and am so happy to have Susan here as part of 30 Poets/30 Days. 

Yesterday we gobbled up Soul Food from Jaime Adoff. Tomorrow... Elaine Magliaro with Dinosaur Dung! (I'm gonna type that again just for fun: Dinosaur Dung! Yep. That was fun.)  For more information on 30 Poets/30 Days and how to follow along, please click here.

Jaime Adoff - Soul Food

Soul Food
by
Jaime Adoff

I wake up early and throw on warm clothes.
Breakfast bars and juice
hot coffee for momma
to go:
We drive slow because of snow and ice.
Slipping and sliding
but
then
we arrive:
I see
a long line of faces
from all different places
waiting for some hope to unload. . .
Food for souls. . .
Groceries—two bags each.
One blue, one green.
Meat stacked in a frozen black tub.
Filling bellies full of God's love.
Walking to cars with folks
we don't know but know us.
We load them up and pray;
for grace and peace
for healing and heat, for houses that are cold.
Some are young some are old.
Grandmas and grandpas,
moms and dads and
kids
just like me.

Time goes fast—with tears and laughs.
Holding cold hands and stomping cold feet.
Hugs between two pounds of meat.
Soul food

so much more than what you eat . . . .

© 2011 Jaime Adoff. All rights reserved.

---

Jaime Adoff says that Soul Food was inspired by his work with The Hope Foundation of Greater Dayton (also findable on Facebook), work which he calls "life-changing." This is yet another thing I love about poets like Jaime - they can take something personal and make it universal, powerful, and moving. It's a gift, and we get to be the lucky recipients when they share it.

Just to give you a sense of Jaime's range, when we last saw him here, we got to play with Rock n Roll Dad. Since then, Jaime's novel, The Death of Jayson Porter won the 2010 Teen Buckeye Book Award. Then he goes and writes Soul Food which shows another whole side. Plus, ya know, he's a musician, too. I can't wait to see him dazzle in person... but for now, I'm just excited to have him here as part of 30 Poets/30 Days.

Yesterday, Tracie Vaughn Zimmer gave us Fantasy. Tomorrow... Art Space by Susan Marie Swanson! For more information on 30 Poets/30 Days and how to follow along, please click here.

Tracie Vaughn Zimmer - Fantasy

Fantasy
by
Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

(Tracie says: Inspired to show my students how playful and fun personification could be, I wrote a collection where each of the genres are personified. In fact, the genres aren’t just people but people at the same picnic! I cannot tell you how much fun I’ve had with this project. There’s romance and even an untimely demise. But here’s a bit of romance....)

Fantasy,
the hip nephew
of Imagination,
breezes into the picnic
in a black sleeveless tank top
(revealing the cut of his biceps nicely,
ifyoumustknow)
eyes trail
his striking good looks-
that tousled hair
first scruff of beard
those lips
intended for
lingering late-night kisses. Sigh.

Fantasy pretends
not to notice—
but when Non-fiction nerds
debate in tedious detail
the merit of various sources,
Fantasy excuses himself
to the buffet.
Simultaneously he devours
an obscene number
of appetizers in single bites
and charms the elusive and lovely
Poetry
who throws back her red hair
and giggles at all his remarks
(even the scandalously lame ones).
Poetry and Fantasy
slip out the side gate of the garden
hand in hand
with jealous whispers
rippling in their wake.

©2011 Tracie Vaughn Zimmer. All rights reserved.

---

I want you to join with me and prod Tracie Vaughn Zimmer to get this collection out into the world. I must see it! I want to know what Poetry and Fantasy do at the lake. I want to know if Poetry can change forms (and if she always has red hair).  Is Fantasy a meter reader? And does Romance rides a white stallion? It's unfair to be left without answers. Publishers, take note!

One of the fun things about this project for me is that many of the poems that appear here either already are from or end up appearing in upcoming books. Tracie's prior poem here, Cousins of Clouds, was the title poem from a book of elephant poems that just debuted less than two months ago. Yay! Now I look forward to Fantasy following in its path... and I'm once again incredibly happy to have Tracie Vaughn Zimmer here (for real - no fantasy!) as part of 30 Poets/30 Days.

Yesterday, Avis Harley gave us a bunch of Clerihews. Tomorrow... Jaime Adoff with Soul Food! For more information on 30 Poets/30 Days and how to follow along, please click here.

Avis Harley - Clerihews

Clerihews
by
Avis Harley

(A clerihew is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem with the first line consisting of the subject's name. The lines are of irregular length with a rhyme scheme of aabb.)

Edmund Clerihew Bentley
was evidently
looking for something new to do
when he invented the Clerihew.


Handel
wrote by candle
while tapping out the beat
to the Water Music Suite.


Shakespeare
wakes up the ear
with his magical touch.
How did he know so much?


Henry Ford
might have invented the skateboard
if he hadn’t been so busy
with that old Model-T.


Edward Lear
wrote limericks all year—
an’a pest he was, too,
if he made one about you!

© Avis Harley. All rights reserved.

---

I'm hatching a secret plan here at GottaBook.  I'm going to tell Avis Harley that I'm doing a 30 Forms/30 Days type of event and I need examples of all sorts of different poetic forms. Then my inbox will be flooded with poems that make me oooh and ahhh and laugh and gasp and force me to pick my jaw up from the floor. (For other points of reference, see Perfect Pitch, Avis' prior contribution here, or check out her ABCs of Poetry books).

OK, fine. I won't launch that plan. Instead, I'll enjoy her books (and three poems which, I just learned, will be included in the Graham Denton curated collection When Granny Won Olympic Gold!), and just be grateful that I'm able to host Avis Harley here as part of 30 Poets/30 Days.

It's Poetry Friday once again (seems like it happens every week!), so head on over to Madigan Reads and check out the roundup of poetic goodness out there today.

Yesterday George Ella Lyon gave us No Need for Metaphor. Tomorrow... Tracie Vaughn Zimmer with Fantasy! For more information on 30 Poets/30 Days and how to follow along, please click here.

George Ella Lyon - No Need For Metaphor

No Need for Metaphor
by
George Ella Lyon

Riding in Papa Dave’s jeep
up the corrugated road
to the sawmill at Highsplint
my brother, wincing after
an especially fierce bounce,
said, “Your suspension
is shot. I might as well
be sitting on an anvil.”
“You are,” Papa Dave said.

©2011 George Ella Lyon. All rights reserved.

---

Since last we saw George Ella Lyon around these parts (with her fab Trying to Get Out of My Tree), her The Pirate of Kindergarten won the ALA's Schneider Family Book Award and her new picture book, All the Water in the World has come out to rave reviews. I'm sure lots of other stuff has happened, too, but I'm just here to report a few highlights!

I also have to add that I love No Need for Metaphor. I love its directness... and it's slyness. You get character, you get story, and you get laughs from the combination, all in nine brief lines. Yup, love it I do, and that's just one of the reasons I'm so happy to have George Ella Lyon here as part of 30 Poets/30 Days.

Yesterday gave us I Am Huffing, I Am Puffing by Graham Denton. Tomorrow... Avis Harley gives us a handful (clump? cluster?) of Clerihews. For more information on 30 Poets/30 Days and how to follow along, please click here.

Graham Denton - I Am Huffing, I Am Puffing

I Am Huffing, I Am Puffing
by
Graham Denton

I am huffing, I am puffing
I can barely catch my breath,
I feel perilously perched upon
the verge of certain death,
I am absolutely shattered,
I am positively bushed,
I have pushed myself much further
than a human should be pushed.

I feel fit for next to nothing,
I am almost on the deck,
I’m devoid of any vigour,
I am virtually a wreck,
all my muscles are complaining,
and my legs are lumps of lead,
there’s a knot inside my stomach,
I’ve an aching in my head.

I can hardly move an eyelid,
I’ve got nothing left to give,
I have reached the utter limits,
I have lost my will to live,
this is when the coach announces
– as he primes his starting gun –
“Right, you lot, the warm-up’s over…
now it’s time to start your run!”

© Graham Denton. All rights reserved.

---

I'm a sucker for sports poems and a sucker for funny poems, so when you combine the two, as Graham Denton has done here, I get downright giddy. To think he's collected a book of such poems, When Granny Won Olympic Gold (due out in August), makes me very happy indeed.

I, of course, don't recognize myself in the above poem AT ALL. No. But even so, I can totally feel the mental and physical state of the narrator, a true testament to the power of poetry. Frankly, I'd go on more, but I'm exhausted from all this typing! Still, I'm not too tired to say how happy I am to have Graham Denton back here again at 30 Poets/30 Days. (Oh, and don't forget to check out Graham's last contribution here, Sounds Delightful.)

Yesterday gave us Dear Whoever Composes the Sky by April Halprin Wayland. Tomorrow... George Ella Lyon and No Need For Metaphor.  For more information on 30 Poets/30 Days and how to follow along, please click here.

Updates. News. More!

During April, I often forget to come out from behind the poetry and say hello. "Hello!"

There's a bunch going on this month, so with no further ado...

Thanks to all who have checked out my Kickstarter project so far. With your help, I'm hoping to be able to launch Poetry: Spread the Word... and we're 38% of the way there! (Thanks, too, to everyone who's blogged, tweeted, and mentioned the project on Facebook).

Further thanks to all of you who have been passing 30 Poets/30 Days on to your friends (and students and fellow teachers and and and). I believe I can speak for all the poets participating when I say how happy and grateful we are that you're reading and sharing the work that pops up here.

I must tip my hat to Arthur A. Levine, my editor AND a 30 Poets/30 Days alum, who launched his picture book Monday is One Day on Friday. The illustrations by the fab Julian Hector and the lovely text by Arthur make for a great combination... and a great book for families (of any makeup) with a working parent. Or without, really!

Also, while I mentioned a few things poetry related going on in the Kidlitosphere this month, here's a much fuller list on the Kidlitosphere.org site.  Rocking stuff all around the web, indeed.

Finally, I was lucky enough to be interviewed by Nathalie Mvondo over at her great Multiculturalism Rocks! blog. You can read the interview here. 

I'm gonna slide back behind the curtain now, but I hope Poetry Month is going well for you, too!

April Halprin Wayland - Dear Whoever Composes the Sky

DEAR WHOEVER COMPOSES THE SKY
by
April Halprin Wayland

Hi.

I look up tonight at the black and the light
at the faint and the bright

I like how you do it.
I like what you've done.

I shiver. But I won't go inside.
I want to stay here, want to watch the stars quiver.

They're wallpaper, ceiling, they fill me with feeling
that this is what's real.

Just being out here
in the nippy night air—

you: way up there.
Me: way down here.

I came out to say hi.
And say thanks for this sky.

©2011 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.

---

Can we just all say "awwww!" Thank you. No, wait... not enough. I mean, can't you SEE the sky April Halprin Wayland is talking about here? And yet I know that what you're seeing isn't the same as what I'm seeing or what April was seeing. So let's add in an "Oooooooh" for that, too. Thank you.

I won't add any other sound effects, but I will direct you to April's poetry-month blog where she's writing a poem a day. It's well worth a read (as, I must add, is her prior contribution here - How To Read A Poem Aloud). Plus you could go out and pick up her award-winning picture book New Year at the Pier... or you can simply join me in a note to whoever composed the above poem and say "Fabulous!" Or all of the above! Yup, once again, I must say I'm thrilled to have April Halprin Wayland here as part of 30 Poets/30 Days.

Yesterday brought us Siguan by Joseph Bruchac. Tomorrow... Graham Denton with I Am Huffing, I Am Puffing. For more information on 30 Poets/30 Days and how to follow along, please click here.

Joseph Bruchac - Siguan

Siguan
by
Joseph Bruchac

I play my flute
and the small birds answer,
their wings fill the sky
like bright colored leaves.

I play my flute
and the lakes and rivers
open their eyes
after their long sleep.

I play my flute
and the earth casts off
her white blanket,
clothes herself in green.

I play my flute
and the southern wind,
its breath soft as the fawn,
comes dancing again.

I play my flute
and the children laugh
for they know my song
and remember my name.

I am Siguan,
I am Spring.

©2011 Joseph Bruchac. All rights reserved.

---

I'm quite excited to have poet-storyteller-novelist-singer-songwriter-guitar-player-many-other-things Joseph Bruchac back here at GottaBook. Like last time (when he shared his poem Bear Path), I encourage you to head to his website to hear him read his poetry (and sing, too!). It's worth the time.

Part of my excitement stems from having watched a bunch of kids discover Code Talker this year, Joseph Bruchac's novel about the Navajo Marines of World War 2. The way kids were riveted and came to understand people from another culture... yet people serving in the American military... seemed so incredibly important to me in this day and age. And I think that's what I continue to respond to in so much of what I read by Joseph Bruchac - the fact that he touches on themes so universal, so timeless and yet timely, and he does it with grace and clarity. And that's why I'm thrilled to have him back here as part of 30 Poets/30 Days.

Yesterday gave us Marilyin Singer and A Stick Is an Excellent Thing. Tomorrow... April Halprin Wayland brings us Dear Whoever Composes the Sky.  For more information on 30 Poets/30 Days and how to follow along, please click here.

Marilyn Singer - A Stick Is an Excellent Thing

A Stick Is an Excellent Thing
by
Marilyn Singer

A stick is an excellent thing.
If you find the perfect one,
it’s a scepter for a king.
A stick is an excellent thing.
It’s a magic wand. It’s yours to fling,
to strum a fence, to draw the sun.
A stick is an excellent thing
if you find the perfect one.

From A STICK IS AN EXCELLENT THING: Poems Celebrating Everyday Play, written by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, coming from Clarion in February, 2012.

© Marilyn Singer. All rights reserved.

---

I love Marilyn Singer's poetry, but I admit that every now and then I curse her for her reversos. If you don't know the form, a reverso is a type of poem Marilyn created in which the poem reads differently from the bottom up than from the top down. In her book Mirror, Mirror (which won this year's Cybil award in poetry), the poems often tell different perspectives on the same fairy tale based on which direction you read. I would say that the form is IMPOSSIBLE... except that she brilliantly filled a book with them. So, I keep trying.

The poem she gave us today is triolet, a form that's hard, yes, but compared to a reverso, it's a walk in the park. Or maybe I only say that because she makes it look so easy and has such fun with the form. (And you can see another triolet from Marilyn for more proof.) One thing I'm positive actually is easy, however, is for me to say I'm thrilled to have any poem by Marilyn Singer here as part of this year's 30 Poets/30 Days.

Yesterday gave us Janet Wong's Eyes-to-Eyes. Tomorrow, Joseph Bruchac and Siguan.  For more information about 30 Poets/30 Days, including infomation about how to follow along, please click here.

Janet Wong - Eyes-to-Eyes

Eyes-to-Eyes
by
Janet S. Wong

I look in the mirror
and see my grandmother's young face,

the day she hid in the bamboo forest, shivering,
and came eyes-to-eyes with a tiger.

They stared at each other a very long time.
This is why she knows so much.

When rain pours down from a blue sky,
she says: tigers are marrying today.

She has taught me many secrets,
but I have told enough.

©2011 Janet S. Wong. All rights reserved.

---

Not only is Janet Wong a remarkable poet, but she's also one of the driving forces (along with Sylvia Vardell) behind a great project - the Poetry Tag Time eBook. You MUST check this out. It's not only 30 poets and 30 poems, which by itself would be worth the 99 cent price, but the poets "tag" each other... handing off the poetry baton, if you will.

So, the poems are linked - sometimes directly, sometimes loosely - which is a lot of fun on it's own. And you also get these great splashes of personality as they tag each other. It's a great idea, and the poetry is truly a blast. (And if you don't have a Kindle, the format the book is in, you can read it on most any device by downloading a Kindle app from Amazon. I read mine on my Mac). I hope you check it out.

Beyond that, I just want to say what a treat it is for me to be able to have Janet Wong here again at 30 Poets/30 Days. (Please also check out her prior contribution, My Green Grandfather.)

Yesterday brought us April is the Coolest Month by Douglas Florian. Tomorrow... A Stick Is an Excellent Thing by Marilyn Singer!  For more information about 30 Poets/30 Days and ways to follow along, please click here.

Douglas Florian - April is the Coolest Month

April is the Coolest Month
by
Douglas Florian

It's said April's the cruelest month,
But I say it's the coolest month.
The grass grows green.
The flowers bloom.
Most all the outdoor sports resume.
The weather warms.
The terns return.
On nature walks we talk and learn.
There's no more ice.
There's no more snow.
The creeks and brooks and rivers flow.
It's time to fish
Or climb a tree.
It's when we worship poetry.
And April's when
Our tax is due.

Perhaps it is the cruelest, too.

© 2011 Douglas Florian. All rights reserved.

---

I promised myself that this year for 30 Poets/30 Days, I'd be all mature and not be a total fanboy for every poet. But... I... well... Douglas Florian!!! And... well... yay!! OK. I'll really try to behave now.

I love reading Douglas Florian's poetry aloud to kids, and I love watching them study his artwork as they listen. And yes, I love reading and studying when no one else is around either. I love his turns of phrase and the way he sees the world... and I'm incredibly grateful he chose to share some of that with us here at 30 Poets/30 Days.

Today's the first Poetry Friday in National Poetry Month, so head on over and check out the roundup at the Poem Farm (where Amy just finished an amazing year full of poetry)

Thanks for being here for the kickoff of this year's fun. Tomorrow... Eyes-to-Eyes by Janet Wong! For more on 30 Poets/30 Days and ways to follow along, please click here.

Poetry: Spread the Word

Yesterday I launched a project called Poetry: Spread the Word, and I'm really excited about it. The project needs help to succeed... yet I think it offers a lot for everyone. I'd sure appreciate it if you could go check it out.

If the project is successful, the big upside on GottaBook is that I'll be posting a lot more of my poetry here all year round. Off the blog, the project will enable me to get into schools and bring poetry to kids (without the schools and teachers having to worry about how to pay me!). And everybody who backs the project gets good stuff, too.

I do hope you'll take a look at Poetry: Spread the Word, and I'd be really grateful if you could be a part of it - backing the project or spreading the word. Thanks! And I'll see you here tomorrow for the kickoff of 30 Poets/30 Days!

(the image in this post is of my concrete poem called Poetry Love. If you subscribe to my blog and cannot see the picture, please click here.)

I Found Where! I Found Where!

(if you don't see the photo that makes up this post, please click here to come to the blog)

Tick Tock Says My Poetry Clock

Yes, it's almost April and almost 30 Poets/30 Days time again. If you think I'm excited... you're right!

There is, as always, a lot going on in the blogosphere for National Poetry Month. Here's three - very small sampling:

Jama Rattigan has her second annual Poetry Potluck featuring poetry and recipes side by side. I participated last year and can't wait to read this year.

April Halprin Wayland is, once again, writing and posting a poem a day during the month. (Are you? Let us know!).

And Irene Latham will be hosting a month long "poetry party" of trivia, poetry, and lots of etcetera.

There's more going on out there, and I do hope you check it all out, share your favorite links and, as always, spread the love of poetry far and wide!

And the Poems Keep Rolling In From Every Side...

Fine. I'll admit it. There's a selfish aspect of the whole 30 Poets/30 Days project: I get to see unpublished poems by all my poetic heroes arriving in my inbox!

I mean, really, how lucky am I? I wake up in the morning and get to read a new Janet Wong poem. I come home from errands and Joan Bransfield Graham has sent me three to look at. THREE!!

I, of course, encourage all the poets to give me options. Lots and lots and lots of options, even if I already know which poem I'm going to use. Please, don't tell them - they think it's all about the project, not about my reading pleasure. Shhhhh.

The truth is that I hate the options because then I have to make choices between fabulous poem A and wonderful poem B and sometimes incredible poems C, D, E or onward. Who can make these choices? It's brutal, yet this, my friends, is the burden I take on just for you. 

Have I mentioned that April is gonna be a whole lotta fun around here? Sure, I'm biased... but if you were reading my inbox, I know you'd agree.

A Little About the 2011 30 Poets/30 Days Logo

When I go to children's book events, I find myself in absolute awe of illustrators. I mean, I look at their work and think "how can they DO that?" I find I'm the same way about logos and graphic design, too.

This year, I was lucky enough to have the talented Mary Peterson ride to my logo-rescue. And here, as you look at it, is a bit about it: she cut the design from a linoleum block and printed it on her letterpress. Yup, you read that right: her letterpress! I find that incredibly cool.

So, thanks, Mary! (And yet another thanks to my #kidlitchat cohort Bonnie Adamson who whipped me up last year's logos)

Welcome to the Web, Lee Bennett Hopkins!

OK, Lee's been all over the web before, but for the first time ever, he has his own website!

So, head on over and check out LeeBennettHopkins.com and learn more about one extraordinarily talented, nice, and generous man.

Why I Love 30 Poets/30 Days

To celebrate Poetry Friday this week (with the weekly roundup over at Andromeda Jazmon's a wrung sponge), I wanted to share two links, each of which contains 30 links:


The 2009 30 Poets/30 Days poems.



The 2010 30 Poets/30 Days poems.


I do so love April, and I'm really looking forward to the poems and poets of the 2011 edition, too.

Announcing the 2011 Edition of 30 Poets/30 Days!

I'm tremendously excited to announce the 2011 overstuffed edition of 30 Poets/30 Days, the celebration of children's poety that will take place here at GottaBook throughout April (a/k/a National Poetry Month).

Overstuffed? Yes! Because this year, I'll be posting at least one previously unpublished poem each day each by a different poet... and many days, I'll be posting two. Why the extra? I've invited back everyone who participated the last two years to see if any of them happened to be free and able to join in the fun!

Of course, not everyone's schedule allows them to jump in again this time around... but considering how late in the day I asked, it's amazing how many poets have come back to play. Here's the current alphabetical list, though I suspect it will change over the next two weeks:

Arnold Adoff, Jaime Adoff, Francisco X. Alarcón, Kathi Appelt, Jorge Argueta, Brod Bagert, Carmen Bernier-Grand, Calef Brown, Joseph Bruchac, James Carter, Kurt Cyrus, Graham Denton, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Ralph Fletcher, Douglas Florian, Kristine O'Connell George, Charles Ghigna, Joan Bransfield Graham, Nikki Grimes, Avis Harley, David L. Harrison, Alan Katz, Bobbi Katz, Julie Larios, J. Patrick Lewis, George Ella Lyon, Elaine Magliaro, Heidi Mordhorst, Kenn Nesbitt, Linda Sue Park, Ann Whitford Paul, Greg Pincus, Laura Purdie Salas, Liz Garton Scanlon, Joyce Sidman, Marilyn Singer, Susan Marie Swanson, Charles Waters, April Halprin Wayland, Carole Boston Weatherford, Janet Wong, Jane Yolen, Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

How excited am I? Well, let's just say I was missing one poet when I looked at my list of who I was contacting... and I double and triple checked to figure out who it could be. Finally, I realized: it was me. Yup. I'm so excited, I've forgotten myself! The poems that are already rolling in are fantastic, so I can promise another great April ahead wherein I will get more and more excited.

There are a few easy ways to follow along. You can visit here every day. You can subscribe to GottaBook via email or your blog reader.

You can join my poetry list, and get all the poems emailed out the day they hit my blog. Enter your email address below and click subscribe:

That list runs year round, by the way, so whenever I post a poem here, whether my own or a visiting poet's, you'll see it.

Plus you can join the fun on Twitter. You can follow me there for links to the poems every day (and much more), or follow @30poets30days for purely poetry tweeting.

A huge thanks goes out to the uber-talented Mary Peterson who has whipped up this year's logo and saving me from my own forgetfulness (she stepped into the breach on no notice and then made the whole project look great!).  Talented and nice people rock, I must say - kind of the theme of generosity displayed by all the poets who join in, too, and to whom I'm incredibly grateful.

And as always... thanks to all of you, because without you, we'd be writing in a vacuum (though we'd surely all still be writing!).

I'm really looking forward to the month ahead, and I hope you'll join in the fun. Questions? Comments? Let me know! And if not... sit back, relax, and let's enjoy the poetry.