Each April is National Poetry Month. There are many ways to celebrate: reading poems, writing poems, sharing poems, going to live poetry events, participating in open mic nights.
A few years ago, my friend Cheryl asked me to do 30/30: thirty poems in thirty days. That was in 2015, and each year since then, I’ve attempted it. I was successful for the first three years, but then fell off a little. This year, I’m making good progress and so far have a poem for each day of the month.
I have a few rules when it comes to 30/30:
- The poem does not have to be perfect.
- I don’t even have to like the poem
- The poem needs to feel complete, in the moment
- I can revise, but it is not required.
I used to post my poem every day, as a sort of accountability move, though I found that once I posted a poem, even though it’s easy to go back and revise or delete, it felt fixed, permanent.
My approach this year is different. I’ve been writing by hand in a notebook, making small edits as I go— crossing out a word here and there, but mostly just writing out the idea and getting the loose structure of the poem. To honor National Poetry Month, though, and to get back in the practice of sharing work, here’s my poem from Day 6:
Wind-Dry
wind up kicks and
swirls dustgrit
shrub-tumble across
the asphalt way
Sunheat and wind dry
air, thin skin
like parchment water
whisked away
eyes grit-sting
blinking doesn't restore tears
in high dry mountains.
Ink and Vein 