April Recap

April is always (always) a busy month for me. Last year, it was so busy that I ended up in the hospital by mid-May. This year, I think I paced myself a little better--not one all-nighter in the entire month.

There was a lot of good and some bad this month, but I want to focus on the good. Here are the best things (with number one being the best and five being the less than best but still very good) that happened:

1. Tammy wrote some poems right at the end of the month. I love my wife, and I love her writing. I'm sure about everyone who's read her writing is a huge fan, too. But she was in a little bit of a creative funk this year, so the best thing that happened to me yesterday was not becoming co-Poet Laureate; instead, it was reading an unexpected poem by my wife. (Click here to read it.)
2. The Poetic Asides gang made it through another April poem-a-day challenge. This was our third year, and it had its share of technological and social drama. But ultimately, everyone came together and had a very supportive (and functional) month of poeming. Plus, the gang helped me become...
3. Co-Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere. This was a very weird experience. I'd never been attacked as a non-poet or a some kind of paid stooge who doesn't care about poetry before in my entire life. So, it took me by surprise when not one person but a whole gang of them seemed bent on making me out as a person who only writes poetry for the money. After I got over the initial shock, I decided to take the high road and ended up with the most votes by midnight on April 29 without getting negative and even sharing links to the other bloggers' sites (so that my audience can learn more about what is out there). And I'm very happy to share the crown, because I think poetry should be about bringing poets together, not splitting them. We can all have our different subjects, styles, world views, etc., but we're all ultimately poets.
   
4. I was interviewed for StoryADay.org's blog. Apparently, they're running a May story a day challenge. If you're game, head on over there.
5. Wrote more than 30 poems and found the time (somewhere) to make a few submissions. I am now 33% of the way through writing a poem a day in 2010. Some days are easy; others are hard.

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Here are the 30 poems I wrote for the April Poem-A-Day Challenge:

091-Overture
092-Canada
093-Partly Dangerous
094-Last night
095-I need to work on my tan
096-Witches
097-Until the world spins apart
098-Jack
099-31
100-The People Outside
101-The Last Thing I Said
102-Savannah
103-Mornings with T
104-Tybee Island
105-It doesn't seem fair
106-Roadkill Poem
107-Scientific Method
108-To write a poem in a crowded bookstore
109-Reese Foster Trendle
110-Carpe Diem
111-According to the time
112-O, Earth!
113-Baby bedtime
114-Half
115-All nighters
116-More than 5 times
117-Commuter
118-Good-bye Winter
119-And suddenly you
120-Darkness

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Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer

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Check out a few cool poetry blogs (with 30 minutes left for National Poetry Month):

• Sage Cohen
• Billy Jones
• Sina Queyras (co-Poet Laureate)
  
• Collin Kelley
• Ron Silliman
  
• Amy King