POETRY

Here Comes April!

National Poetry Month Plans

iPhone photo by author (in the Lark and Owl)

Yesterday I shared a poem where I mentioned the idea of writing letters to poets. In case you missed it:

To —

When I closed my laptop after scheduling it to publish, I realized that I didn’t need to think anymore about my project for National Poetry Month, I had it already: letters to poets. But not as letters, of course, I would need to find a poetic form to use.

I quickly made a list of what poets I would want to write to, if I could; these are the writers that came to mind immediately when I considered the ones that have impacted me the most, either in terms of style or sensibility, or just the sheer power of their work. A trip upstairs to my poetry bookshelf (which is embarrassingly overstuffed) helped me complete the list, which I wanted to make a nice round 12 but realized it had to grow to a baker’s dozen of 13. . . . then later when I told my daughter about the project I bashfully added one more who very much belonged in the group. So, the total is 14.