Monthly Archives: March 2016
Postcard: March 21, 2016 Happy First Day of Spring!
April = National Poetry Month
This barn, outside of Red Wing, Minnesota, with part of a public art poem still visible despite weathering and renovations, speaks volumes to me. As you all know, April is National Poetry Writing Month. (It is also National Card and Letter Writing Month as well as National Jazz Appreciation Month!)
This year, I am going to take a long-contemplated plunge and participate in the National Poetry Writing Month project–“NaPoWriMo” to insiders! If you aren’t familiar with this annual “poetry boot camp”, you can learn more about it here.
Analogous to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which attracts more than 300,000 writers who sign up to write 50,000 words during the month of November (and hold themselves accountable by posting their word counts each day), the poetry version invites poets to write (and if they wish, to share publicly through online posting) one poem each day in April.
This year, I am in! Each day, I will post my poetic “catch of the day”. It is rather exciting–and terrifying, too, since I don’t know whether writer’s block will strike or whether I will feel the poem is too raggedy
and unpolished to post. No matter–post it, I shall.
Perhaps you’d like to participate? If so, let me know, and I would be happy to include a link to your site each day. And if you are celebrating National Poetry Month in a different way this year, let me know–I will share that idea, too.
Yours in poetry, Leslie
Supernova News Flash! My Collection of Poems is Published
It is here at last! This book of poems has taken my whole life to distill. Here is a closer look at the front and back covers.
Poet and publisher Karen Kelsay, who helms Kelsay Books and its imprint, Aldrich Press, did an incredibly beautiful job with the photo and text I provided. (The photograph was taken last summer in Lanesboro, Minnesota.) Her company’s intention is to “transform manuscripts into works of art.” Take a look at her other publications; her lists are filled with wonderful titles to choose from, including Sally Nacker’s Vireo (2015), one of my very favorites.
Four of the elegies included in this collection have been published on Winona Media this spring (take a look at “Poems for Northfielders”.)
If you would like your own copy, you can order one on Amazon (and peek inside at a few poems.) Or join me at Content Bookstore in Northfield on Thursday, May 5, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.– Content Bookstore has instituted a monthly poetry reading/open mike series. I will be the featured poet for May, reading a number of selections from this book. If you like what you hear, you can take home an inscribed copy. You can even step up to the podium and read one of your own poems if you’d like to!
Thank you for sharing my excitement–I will be sharing word of another poetry endeavor for April– National Poetry Month — later in the week.
Leslie
Postcard: March 14, 2016
