National Poetry Month, 2010

As I've said before, April may be "the cruelest month," but it's also National Poetry Month. Over the last three years, BillyBlog flourishes in April.

In 2007, I posted a "Poetry in Motion" poster for each of April's thirty days. In some cases, more than one per day.

In 2008, I posted thirty favorite poems from thirty separate poets to honor the month.

Last year, as BillyBlog meandered into an "occasional post" blog, and its spin-off, Tattoosday, skyrocketed in popularity. So last year, we launched the Tattooed Poets Project, which was an amazing experience for me, and, I hope, for our readers as well.

This year, I was going to put all content exclusively over at Tattoosday. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I like the dichotomy of the two blogs. BillyBlog affords Tattoosday readers the chance to explore poetry. If someone is interested in the poem over there, they'll come here.

So, for the second April in a row, we will post thirty poems by thirty different poets (maybe more).

Each one of the poems posted in April will have been contributed by a tattooed poet. The verse may not be needle-and-ink-related, but the writer initially came to this section of the blogosphere to share their body art on Tattoosday.

I am hoping this double-barreled blog venture will be successful. I had some assistance from Stacey Harwood over at the Best American Poetry blog, who helped sound the clarion call for volunteers. This year, also, our first contributor Theresa Edwards, was also a great referrer of poets. In addition, dozens of other poets referred me to those among them who were inked. Facebook proved to be an excellent networking tool as I reached out to poets across America and invited them to participate. I thank, in advance, everyone who contributed and all those who merely pointed me in the right direction.

Enjoy!

Intro to National Poetry Month

April may be "the cruelest month," but it's also National Poetry Month. We here at BillyBlog have prospered in the month of April the last two years.

In 2007, I posted a "Poetry in Motion" poster for each of April's thirty days. In some cases, more than one per day.

Last year, I posted thirty favorite poems from thirty separate poets to honor the month.

But BillyBlog has been waning in production over the past year, as its spin-off, Tattoosday, has involved more and more of our time and effort. So, a conundrum presented itself. What to do this year? Should we continue the traditional April poetry blitz? Or just focus on poetic tattoos here and there, over on Tattoosday?

The answer came back in January. I would have my cake and eat it too. And so the quest began.

This April, BillyBlog will post thirty poems by thirty different poets. These, however, will be selected by the poets themselves, as work that best represents them.

But it doesn't end there. The poets will earn spots on BillyBlog by virtue of their contribution to Tattoosday.

Yes, each one of the poems posted in April will have been contributed by a tattooed poet. The verse may not be needle-and-ink-related, but the writer initially came to this section of the blogosphere to share their body art on Tattoosday.

I am hoping this double-barreled blog venture will be successful. I had some assistance from Stacey Harwood over at the Best American Poetry blog, who helped sound the clarion call for volunteers. In addition, dozens of other poets referred me to those among them who were inked. Facebook proved to be an excellent networking tool as I reached out to poets across America and invited them to participate. I thank, in advance, everyone who contributed and all those who merely pointed me in the right direction.

Enjoy!

Cleaning Out My Inbox: Mid-March Edition

Need a diversion? Try this. It's called "Click Bored".

Hmm. I thought I had more in my inbox. BillyBlog fans need not despair. I have been slowly, steadily been working behind the scenes on my annual National Poetry Month post-a-day project.



You'll be sure to see a flurry of activity here in a few weeks. And lots of poetry!

Last week we had a March snowstorm. Here's Shayna, hard at work, in front of our home in Brooklyn:



A day later, the foot of snow was melting like crazy. Here's a shot of the icy steps of the main Manhattan Post Office at 8th Avenue and 33rd Street:


That's all for now!

Happy Birthday, Melanie!

30 31 Poems in 30 Days: BillyBlog's Favorites, An Introduction

For the month of April, National Poetry Month, I will be counting down my Top 30 31 Favorite Poems, one a day (and an extra one during the month), for the entire month. If you abhor poetry, mark your calendar to come back here in May, because 98% of the April posts will be poetic.

This list will be a hybrid list, of sorts. I will basically merge the list of my favorite poems and favorite poets, so that I will only be offering one poem per poet. You won’t be seeing ten Charles Simic poems, or five Bukowski works. Once a poet appears, that’ll be it for the remainder of the month.

I will choose a poem that I like the most from the poet in question, although I may plug books. In some cases, longer poems will be edited for size.

So let's get started.....

National Poetry Month Starts Tomorrow

Readers rejoice!

Or groan.

Last year, BillyBlog celebrated NPM with a special "Poetry in Motion" poster a day exercise that was both challenging and fun for me to accomplish.

What's in store this year? You'll have to tune in tomorrow to see how BillyBlog will be celebrating April 2008.

Liveblogging from Vallejo Tribute tonight!

Posted originally at 6:47 PM:

We'll see how this goes. Got there super early and there was no line. Grabbing some reading energy in the form of pizza and Stella Artois at Singas "world-famous" pizza at the corner of 2nd Ave and East 11th.

Is it possible that, at the end of April, this will be my first reading of 2007?
I think so. Had to get in one good event before National Poetry Month ended.

Jump ahead to "Pre-Game Analysis"

Poem a Day for National Poetry Month

If you're interested in getting a poem e-mailed to you each day during National Poetry Month, click here and enter your e-mail address in the appropriate field.

National Poetry Month Just Around the Corner - How About a Little Bukowski?

The good folks at HarperCollins sent me an email alerting me to yet another posthumous collection of poetry from Charles Bukowski, dead 13 years now, and still churning 'em out. Behold: The People Look Like Flowers At Last: New Poems



This is, by my estimate, the 25th book published since Hank left us. And there's another volume coming in November.

Whet your appetite from this latest edition:

for they had things to say

the canaries were there, and the lemon tree
and the old woman with warts;
and I was there, a child
and I touched the piano keys
as they talked—
but not too loudly
for they had things to say,
the three of them;
and I watched them cover the canaries at night
with flour sacks:
"so they can sleep, my dear."

I played the piano quietly
one note at a time,
the canaries under their sacks,
and there were pepper trees,
pepper trees brushing the roof like rain
and hanging outside the windows
like green rain,
and they talked, the three of them
sitting in a warm night's semicircle,
and the keys were black and white
and responded to my fingers
like the locked-in magic
of a waiting, grown-up world;
and now they're gone, the three of them
and I am old:
pirate feet have trod
the clean-thatched floors
of my soul,
and the canaries sing no more.

For more Bukowski, visit this website.