National Poetry Month - Light for This April
by Barbara Westwood Diehl
So this month, we shine the spotlight on poems and the poetry craft. (Fiction and CNF, you'll get your turn later.)
I know that journals everywhere will be shining a light on poems this month. A floodlight on poems. Poems we love. Poems that are branded into our memories. Poems that educated us in a way that prose couldn't. Poems that sat down with us on the couch and said what we needed to hear. Even if it stung. And when it comforted. Especially when it comforted. Poems that told us we weren't alone.
I'm looking forward to the poems and insights fellow journal editors will share this month. Sometimes, I confess, we're so wrapped up in the day-to-day business of reading submissions and, well, life, that we don't take time to explore all the wonderful work by fine poets, and the great journals that publish them, that's so easily available online. But not this month. This is poetry immersion month. We're taking a luxurious soak in it, and we hope you will, too.
We'll be sharing poems and poetry-related thoughts via social media this month, and updating this blog along the way. Hope you'll stop by from time to time.
Stay well, readers and writers.
Day 1: Sharing the work of our contributors, both in the BR and in other journals—
A Poem + 1: Donna Vorreyer's poem in the BR and her poem (OK, in this case, two poems) in Diode.
A Poem + 1: Joshua's Martin's poem in the BR and his poem in Tupelo Quarterly.
Day 2:
BR intern Paige Passantino would like to share "Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong" by Ocean Vuong, published in The New Yorker in 2015 (includes audio). She says she is always struck by "The most beautiful part of your body/is where it's headed."
From Barbara: One of my favorite exercises in one of my favorite poetry craft books (The Crafty Poet, A Portable Workshop, by Diane Lockward) is beginning with a simple question and building the poem with images (and I love doing research for this one) until you have a response that is decidedly not a simple answer. The example she provides is "In Answer to Amy's Question What's a Pickerel" by Stanley Plumly.
Day 3:
Enjoying the interviews with poets in SoFloPoJo. Maybe you will too.
Day 4:
A poem by Paul Hostovsky from our first online issue. This poem is included in "Paul Hostovsky: Selected Poems" (FutureCycle Press, 2014).
Day 5:
W. H. Auden's "Funeral Blues" set to music by Nemo Shaw. Link included in a BR issue years back. Deserves a listen.
Day 6:
Need a poetry break? Like cruising the latest issues? Wondering where to send your work? Select "poetry" on the NewPages drop-down menu and work your way through the alphabet.
Day 7:
Another great place to visit poems (fiction and nonfiction, too): the Best of the Net site.
Day 8:
Looking back at some of our prize-winning poems. Like these by Brett Foster, Clay Matthews, and Roy Bentley. Final judge for that one was Reginald Harris.
Day 9:
I've had John Drury's "Creating Poetry" (1991) on my shelf for many years, and in fall 2012 we published his poem, "How to Stay Awake." Here's a 2011 interview with him in the "How a Poem Happens" blog.
Day 10:
Some of us learned to love poems by listening to our parents read A. A. Milne and Robert Louis Stevenson at bedtime. Later, we read silly and wonderful poems by Dr. Seuss, Jack Prelutsky, and others to our own kids. Hope you're all finding poems that bring you together.
Day 11:
A fine prose poem by Callista Buchen. "Where can I get more steel, I ask him."
Day 12:
In May 2018, Bridgewater International Poetry Festival folks stopped by the BR table to share writing prompts. Here's the blog post. I like the idea of 13 (or another number) ways of considering something. Exercises should be twisted to suit yourself, of course. Once you achieve lift off, you can leave them in the dust.
A poem by Jeanne Wagner about the pursuit of perfect penmanship, from our Fall 2012 issue. I like the idea of a poem about striving toward some goal, and seeing where that lands.
Day 13:
Three poems from our summer/fall 2003 issue--way before we were online:
Day 14:
A poem by Kateema Lee in our spring 2018 issue and poems in Beltway Poetry Quarterly.
Day 15:
A podcast from the Library of Congress "The Poet and the Poem" page should be about the right length for a walk outside (if you can do so safely).
Day 16:
A poem by Teresa Dzieglewicz in our summer 2018 issue and a poem in Southern Humanities Review.
Day 17:
Shared by Adina Edelman: "Here's one of my favorites for its use of imagery and metaphor: Langston Hughes's Mother to Son: I think it's especially relevant today to remind people that there are troubles in every generation, and we have the ability to pass on positivity and determination to our children."
Day 18:
Allison Joseph, from our Winter 2001 issue. And her great resource for writers, "Creative Writers Opportunities" (aka crwropps): [url=https://creativewritersopps.blogspot.com]https://creativewritersopps.blogspot.com[/url]
--and even earlier, Summer 1997. Like visiting old friends.
Day 19:
Make time for poetry play. Two books I still turn to when I need a kick-start exercise or to read chapters on the craft and sample poems, Ordinary Genius and The Poet’s Companion.
Day 20:
More poetry play time. Try some old forms and techniques to write about the here and now. Maybe learn some cool Greek words to casually slip into conversations. A long list: [url=https://poets.org/glossary]https://poets.org/glossary[/url] A longer list: [url=https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/glossary]https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/glossary[/url]
Day 21:
Hot Flashes. Moira Egan’s Hot Flash Sonnets in our Summer 2012 issue (great take on that issue's Heat contest theme) and more about this poet on the Poetry Foundation website.
Day 22:
Today is Earth Day. Ecosphere, by Sarah Brown Weitzman, Spring 2013 issue.
Day 23:
Congratulations to BR contributor Destiny Birdsong! Her debut collection, Negotiations, will be out from Tin House in October 2020.
Day 24:
National Book Award finalist, Towson University professor Leslie Harrison recommends poetry selections for a unique time in history.
Day 25:
This happened today: The Universe in Verse. You can read and listen to a good number of the poems from past years on the site. May be good for your soul.
Day 26:
Read something in a journal that made you sit up and take notice? Say so. Reach out. Might be especially appreciated now. David Obuchowski on Twitter: "I am so floored/thrilled because I just got an email from someone who had been spending her Sunday reading
Baltimore Review and she read my story “Grapefruit,” which prompted her to reach out."
Day 27:
Good to see a poem by Jenn Givhan at Verse Daily today.
Zoom events and other cool stuff at the Ivy Bookshop here in Baltimore.
Day 28:
Joanne M. Clarkson's poem, "The Stone Masons," winner of our Winter 2015 contest. From the poet's note: "As often happens, writing begets understanding and forgiveness."
Day 29:
An idea for the last day of National Poetry Month: "I love this poem because." Send a link to a poem you love (can be from any online source), along with a sentence about why you love it, to editor@baltimorereview.org. We'll include in our blog and share.
Day 30:
Here's a poem that's stuck with me, "I Am Thinking About Power Lines." I like what Terrance Wedin does with simple, direct language.