April is National Poetry Month

Margaret Bolit

An invitation to get involved:

Margaret Bolit

April is National Poetry Month, and somehow, terrifyingly, April is also little more than a week away. I really like poetry, love that it has a month devoted to celebrating it, and last year I really enjoyed collecting favorite poems from people I love to post here. This year I want to do something to mark the month as well, but I’m going to try something a little different. Something which may not work at all. Though actually, its success is far more up to you than me.

I don’t think I’ve ever read as much poetry as I have over the past year. Part of this is probably that I’ve been working in a book store where I shelve the poetry section, so the sheer number of books of poetry that I touch on a daily basis has risen exponentially compared with every other period of my life. But part of this is also that I’ve felt really mentally raw and sensitive for large portions of the past twelve months, and this has made my mind open and attuned to the nuances of poetry in a way I’ve never experienced with any kind of longevity before. Also, I’ve had trouble reading anything long. And a lot of poems are short.

I love poetry. Something else I love is getting mail. And for some reason it feels like a really good idea to combine these two things I really like in celebration of National Poetry Month 2011, so what I’m going to do is this: I will mail you poems. That is, I will mail you poems if you’d like me too. I will mail out one poem a week, to the address of your choice, postage on me, for the entire month of April.

I realize this entails giving me your address…but I kind of assume that everyone who reads this blog I actually know, and likely know well enough to know where they live. And if we’ve never met, you should still feel welcome to take me up on this offer. I’d love to send you poetry too. And if you’re uncomfortable giving out your address, or you don’t want actual, real, made-out-of-paper mail, I’m willing to send the poems that I choose to an email address as well. And–within reason–if there’s someone you know who would really like to receive a poem in the mail every week of April, but who (for some strange reason) doesn’t read my blog, you can either let them know about this post and have them contact me themselves, or you can give me an address and I’ll add them to the list.

So, that’s what I’d like to do…whether any of this actually happens is kind of up to you. I really will do pretty much all the work here: I’ll choose the poems, put them on paper, put the paper into envelopes, stamp those envelopes and mail them. I will do this at least four times throughout April. Maybe more if I get really into it (and I’m obviously already pretty into it). All I need from you is a response to this post, either as a comment or as an email to mpbostrom@gmail.com, telling me that you’re interested, and indicating how you’d like to receive your poem (real mail, email) and to what address you’d like me to send them. And I need this response as soon as possible, and definitely before April 1. So! Let’s begin. Happy Almost National Poetry Month!