PAD April 2022: Another One in the Books

 Once again, I've survived another April of writing a poem or more a day, despite a mild week-long case of COVID, and my total for this year (counting an "early bird" poem for NaPoWriMo on March 31) was 37 poems. As usual, most of them (19) were free verse, but almost half were in some form or other. I wrote three light verses, two kimos, two hay(na)ku strings, two nonets (incuding a double nonet), a "tanka prose" (like a haibun), a senryu, a curtal sonnet, a "duplex" sonnet, a cento of sorts, a concrete poem, a glosa, a "Wordle" poem, an another mostly rhymed verse in anapestic meter. Six of the poems I wrote this month became part of my "Elbow Project" (poems inspired by the music and lyrics of the rock band Elbow). Also, Maureen Thorson of NaPoWriMo featured my Day 20 poem, "Brussels Sprouts Make Their Case"on her blog - a nice honor!

It was a big month for me publication-wise, too. My first full-length poetry collection, The Bungalow of Colorful Aging, continues to generate interest and good reviews, including a verbal seal of approval from my poet friend Jane Hirshfield, who loved it!  (See the link to the right for info on how to get a copy.) Also my poem "A White Piano in Kharkiv" was published in the Poet Magazine anthology Poetry for Ukraine, for which all profits are going to the organization Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund. Here is the link. Finally, I have another new book, a chapbook entitled Knit Our Broken Bones, published by Maverick Duck Press. It's a series of "hay(na)ku sonnets" - short, mostly rhymed verse on topics from COVID to the 2020 presidential election to love, pets, storms, music, etc. You can order fom the publisher here, or contact me privately for how to get an autographed author's copy.

I'll be back soon with my "top ten" favorite poems of April 2022.