Watch This Space!

So, it's been a whole year since I've posted anything here. So much has happened - the birth of my second grandchild, an impending move, and a few vacations, not to mention some poetry news like my attendance at the West Chester Poetry Conference, a Columbus Day weekend workshop with Marge Piercy, and publication of a poem in the Spring issue of Rattle. But maybe I'll talk more about all that later. The reason I'm back is that National Poetry Month is about to start, and with it my annual Poem-a-day Challenge. I hope to get my poetic mojo back after several months of relative inactivity. I can make a number of hollow excuses why I haven't been writing, but I won't bore you with all that. Suffice to say that I hope a poem a day will scrape off the rust, and dust off the cobwebs. So please excuse me if the first couple of days' worth of poetry seems a little awkward. Once I get my groove back, I hope to produce something of merit.

For the tenth year in a row, I'll be participating in Robert Lee Brewer's Poem-a-day Challenge on his Poetic Asides blog. I have been a non-entity over there lately, but I was encouraged that he finally produced a "short list" of favorite poems from last year's challenge, and my poem "The Flute Remembers" was on it. Also, my poem "The Man Peeling Sweet Potatoes on Easter Morning", written for the challenge in 2015, was the poem recently published in Rattle.  I'll also be following NaPoWriMo.net, Maureen Thorson's blog that's only active each April, and features some pretty intriguing daily prompts. I often try to combine her and Robert's daily prompts into one poem just to challenge myself a little more. Last year I enjoyed participating in Tiferet Journal's Poem-a-thon, which also served as a fund raiser for their fine publication of spiritually-based poetry and prose, but I decided to skip it for this year. I just don't feel comfortable asking my friends and relations for donations two years in a row - maybe some other time.

Anyway, as in years past, I will be posting most of my poems for April on this very blog. I will also have links from my Facebook page. I hope you enjoy at least some of my poems in the coming month.