April 12, haiku. What better way to commemorate this beautiful Ohio day than to write a haiku?

Sweet wind carries the

Hyacinth on her breath and

Plaits our hair with spring.

April 11, everyday poetry. The simple, small, the tasks we do everyday, the moments we take for granted. It’s a look out the window, the shape of our hands in soapy sink water, the arch of our backs to pick up this toy or that discarded sock. The hands we hold, the faces we wash, the steps we take. Poetry can be found here.

April 10, animal inspiration. The natural world is such a huge inspiration for me right now. Mostly the spindly, thin, terrifying miniature world of insects and plants. I am fascinated by the description of decay and the life that exists there. However, as if to reinforce my craft, I find viewing images of this stuff makes me weak and queasy! So I just stick to reading about it and transforming that data into my work. On the other side of inspiration, I live with an animal: my dog Ripley. She is such a good pup, and she matches my energy perfectly. Most of the day she spends lazing, with spurts of energy to play or chase squirrels in the yard. I hope to continue to enjoy life like she does.

April 9, work in progress. Enjoy!

April 8, favorite poet right now. It’s so hard to choose! There are so many poets that hold a special place in my poetic history, due to one poem or another. But right now, in this current moment, it’s poet Kate Baer. Her work resonates with me in my current season in life, and I love her book AND YET (2022), which is full of the mother life. There is comfort in knowing others have the same experiences as me.

April 7, stellar inspiration. My first published collection of poems, SPACE SPECTACULAR, came out back in 2018 from Ghost City Press when I was in the thick of space poems. So much of my work focused on the wonder and mystery of space and our stellar origins. I still contemplate space and get so excited over new images of our universe. The first photo from the Webb Telescope has to be my favorite, the deep field almost like an update to Hubble’s deep field. If you want to read my chapbook, you can download it here: https://ghostcitypress.com/2018-summer-microchap-series/space-spectacular

April 6, Blackout Poetry / Erasure. Making poems out of other writing, art to more art. This exercise is close to my heart. There are so many variations of erasure, and one of my favorites is making the page into art and poetry. Sarah J. Slot’s Hotel Almighty is an incredible example of erasure turned to collage. It’s one of my favorite books to flip through when I need inspiration. Here’s a blackout poem/erasure that I started using the text The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

April 5, this is how we workshop. In the time of COVID we moved entirely online which necessitated digital workspaces for poetry workshop. Our poetry support group.adapted surprisingly well and maybe even did better real-time commentary than if we had been in person. My poems have grown so much because of the time we can give to workshop. The highlights, the comments, the strikethroughs. Here’s two partial poems mid-process. This is how we workshop.

April 4, my poetry family. A small group of people integral to my poetry process, responsible for my growth over the past few years, supportive beyond my wildest dreams. I am so incredibly lucky to have these women in my life. They represent a small portion of the poetry community that influenced me and taught me so much. I hope that all you writers out there find others to read your works in progress, whether your friends or family, a library workshop (I used to lead these!), or a group of like-minded writers.

April 3, taking a walk with my children. The joy of discovery on my son’s face as he finds a pinecone or acorn top or a rock half-buried in dirt. That is the wonder I wish I could capture. A poem is a small moment of discovery but every day is filled with those moments for my children and that is extraordinary. The natural world is filled with beauty and decay and incredible wonder. We watched a hickory seed shell float down the stream. We tossed sticks in and watched them meander like little boats. We dug into the dirt to find three big rocks. Nothing else is like this. Seeing the world through a child’s eyes.