April 22, collage. Happy Earth day! On this beautiful, thundering day I participated in the Lit Cleveland Poetry Festival at Case Western Reserve University. It was a wonderful day of workshops with brand new faces and a couple familiar ones. I learned so much and I made a new friend–amazing to say as an adult! The community of poets in Northeast Ohio is ever expanding for me. I was fortunate enough to take workshops from Zach Savich (on sound and music), Ali Black (on the real and raw), and Robin Beth Schaer (on revision). It was so good to write with others today and to hear everyone’s ideas and works in progress. So, here’s the collage of my day.

April 21, published poem. Sharing a poem from pre-pandemic from a poetry month feature called Ohio Loves You (presented by the now sadly defunct Barnhouse Journal). What I love about this poem is the ars poetica feel and the playful nature.

April 20, water. Here’s a poem in progress for your sunny April evening.

April 19, miniature inspiration. So yes, I know today was meant (at least in my head) to be tiny things that inspire me. But I’m throwing all that out and instead going for something everyday but expansive, the macro instead of the mini/micro. And it’s this sky. This beautiful pink April sky, the likes of which are so so rare. This is a summer sky and I got it in April. I feel so lucky to have seen it, by chance, stepping outside to add something to the garbage bin. So, please take this photo as offering for some tangential path toward inspiration.

April 18, oldies. Have to go back to one of my favorite poets, Rilke, for the oldies. This particular collection is close to my heart (gifted from a dear friend in Germany) and with the original German along with the translation.

April 17, favorite poem right now. In the spirit of hoping for more spring weather during this April cold snap: from Leah Poole Osowski’s EXCEEDS US, the poem titled “Vernal” speaks to me, threaded with breath and beauty. Come on warm weather!

April 16, notebook.

I was going to include a picture of my writing notebook here, but I’m already in bed for the night typing this. And I’ll be honest, a lot of my poetry is now happening in digital spaces: on the notes app, on my laptop in Google Docs. I’ve become somewhat of a hybrid writer, both handwritten and digital spaces harbor poetry. I think that’s probably true for most poets, who offer up their work on whatever “device” they have handy. I do, of course, have a wonderful blue linen notebook gifted from a friend from my MFA program. I cracked it open three years ago and I am slowly filling it with each creative writing event I attend. And this coming weekend I’ll be pulling it out again for the Lit Cleveland Poetry Festival. Maybe I’ll see some of you locals there?

April 15, field guide poem. A quick poem, work in progress.

April 14, to-be-read pile. So, in all honesty about half of my bookshelves and my Kindle library are TBR piles. I have so many books to read that I have no business acquiring more! But, as a reader and writer the call of a new book is too hard to resist. Here are a few of the books I want to get through this year. I definitely have a few other half-dead poetry books lying around the house, but this TBR pile is a mix. The next book I’m cracking open is Maggie Smith’s You Could Make This Place Beautiful because she is coming to Northeast Ohio in May!

April 13, spooky poem. Yes, I know it’s not Halloween, but can’t we enjoy something spooky every once and a while? I’ve got so many favorite spooky poems, The Raven by Poe, Song by Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Diorama of Ghosts by Paige Lewis, and my favorite spooky collection, AT NIGHT by Lisa Ciccarello (preview pictured here). But my right-now favorite spooky poem is Ghost Q&A by Anne Carson, which was published in A Public Space magazine issue 13. I’ve included part of the poem here (because it’s behind a subscriber paywall at the magazine, you can Google to find the whole poem). Enjoy!