It's Almost April -- Get Thee to Some Poetry

Busier than the December holidays, and just as much fun, National Poetry Month begins on Sunday, April 1.

There is so much going on this month. For me, April truly is a frenzy of writing, teaching and parenting. Here is my top ten list of literary activities:

10) Passover and Easter
Our family will be celebrating both, and both religious celebrations have a literary element. Every year my husband, his parents, and the children attend their church's Passion Play. I make a small Seder for the family, where we read and revisit the story of the Jews flight from slavery Egypt. (And I make Miss Jennie's ah-mazing Matzo Candy. The Matzo is just there to hold the chocolate toffee.)


9) On the parenting front...
My son and I will spend National Poetry Month training. We are competing in a Warrior Dash in May. This means that after a long (10 year) break, I am back to running. How is this literary? We get free Viking hats to wear at the run. I will be singing from Wagner's Ring Cycle as I hurdle over the fire pits. Singing is one of my favorite ways to embarrass the children.


8) An Die Musik Reading, Baltimore
April 28, 8 PM.

Michael Salcman, LPR's Art Editor and one of my poetry mentors, is performing his poems set to music. I am really looking forward to "Songs of Salcman."

Michael Salcman

7) Blackbird Poetry Festival, Howard Community College, Columbia, MD
Thursday, April 26, 10 AM - 9:30 PM
Keep a poem in your pocket or the Poetry Police will ticket you. Really. This festival includes free afternoon events. There's also an evening reading with Kim Addonizio -- tickets are required.

6) Conversations and Connections Writers Conference, Washington, DC
Saturday, April 21
I've never been to this annual conference before, but it's supposed to be great for networking. I'm signed up to do "Speed Dating with the Editors." Also look for me on a poetry panel, "Tell It Like It Is: Narrative Poetry in Today's Market" with Holly Bass of Busboys & Poets, Melanie Henderson of Tidal Basin Review, Shakeema Smalls of the student-run Amistad journal and Kim Roberts of Beltway Poetry Quarterly.

5) Poetry Residencies
Maryland State Arts Council's Artist-in-Education Program
I have been teaching for MSAC for ten years! This month, I start two poetry residencies. The first is at Swansfield Elementary in Columbia. The students and I will be doing workshops on portrait poems, song parodies (great for teaching rhythm and rhyme), and we should be receiving some poetry postcards from Jone McCullough's classes in Washington state. By the end of the month, I'll be doubling up. Swansfield ES in the morning, heading to Northfield ES and the third grade in the afternoons.

4) CityLit Festival, Baltimore
Saturday, April 14, Enoch Pratt Free Library -- Doors open 10 AM
The journal I edit, Little Patuxent Review, will have a table at this great annual festival. II am so excited about this year. Thomas Lux! Edward Hirsch! LPR has a reading at 11:30, featuring some of our contributors to the recent Social Justice issue AND the winner of Pratt's poetry contest -- a partnership with LPR -- will have his poem unveiled in the huge front windows of the library. Big congrats to Joe Ross.

Joe's poem will be displayed in Pratt's enormous front windows.

3) Yoga Workshop for Writers
Saturday, April 28, 12 PM
I am joining novelist and certified yoga instructor Danuta Hinc in leading this workshop, specifically designed for writers and other artists. We'll be doing yoga, guided meditation, and writing or sketching. The key is using yoga as a basis for opening ourselves to the creative source. You can sign up in advance through Coreworks, Columbia.

2) Poetic Formal, Village Learning Place, Baltimore
Thursday, April 26, 6:30-9 PM FREE
Some time ago, I got a crazy idea that we should do a Poetic Formal. You know, read form poetry while dressed in formal attire. And by formal attire, I mean Beastly Bridesmaid gowns and Bad Blue Tuxedos. Poets Shirley Brewer, Clarinda Harriss, Bruce Sager and I are "chaperoning" the formal, which includes prizes for your ensemble and an open mic. Thrift store couture is encouraged but not required. How cool is it that our event is listed at www.Poets.org?

And my number one literary activity...

1) Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC

My 12-year-old Bard Buff is on spring break next week. I have never been to the Folger Shakespeare Library and NPM is the perfect time for a literary girls' day out. (We're also hoping to go see Into the Woods at Baltimore's Center Stage.) Maybe this summer, when we visit the U.K., we'll check out a play at the new Globe theater.

All this month, Author Amok will host poets writing in about their favorite, tried and true, or strangest writing habits. I'll post the full schedule tomorrow. Happy April!

Poetry Friday: Keeping a Senryu Journal

In the fall of 2010, when everyone else was complaining about Hurricane Irene as "the storm that wasn't," central Maryland was deluged.

I started following the blog of local poet Kay Weeks. Kay lives up the road from me in Old Ellicott City, where she observed a river flowing down Main Street. (Her Hurricane Irene series is here at her aptly named blog, A Walk into the Past. Old EC is a pre-revolutionary American mill-town. It was the terminus of the first 13 miles of track laid by the B & O Railroad.)

Lower Main Street, Ellicott City during Irene -- www.baltimoresun.com

Kay was journaling about her storm experience online with a combination of prose, little poems called senryu, and yummy illustrations by artist Margaret Scott. The result was something beyond a typical journal. The senryu highlighted Kay's experiences, providing bite-sized insights. The poems were small windows into how one person's life has universal moments that speak to what it means to be human.

Here are two of Kay's observations from the storm:

Irene rages on

but my two cats are sleeping.                      
How I want their ease!

August 28…Morning…No power!  

Talking to myself, cats, birds.

Buy ice, try to save food.

Wet towels scattered around.

A senryu, simply put, follows the form of haiku but focuses on human nature, rather than "capital n" Nature. They're known for being humorous or satiric, poking fun at human foibles, but modern senryu can be -- according to the Haiku Society of America -- "more like serious short poems in haiku form."

HSA also shares this pronunciation note:  "In Japanese, the word 'senryu' sounds like the English phrase 'send you' with a Spanish flipped-r in place of the d. For those unfamiliar with this sound, a three-syllable word, 'sen-ri-you' may be substituted in English, with the medial 'i' sound as diminished as possible."

Kay turned her satirical eye on herself again last fall, during a trip to Spain which was fraught with mishaps. They seem funny now. You can read the whole series, "Time Zones," here.

Kay hadn't event arrived at her destination yet when this happened (art by Margaret Scott):

Málaga

Arrive Málaga,

but luggage is in Frankfurt.

What more can happen?

But luggage is in Frankfurt...

Should not have asked that!

Deficit of Euros now

And I need a cab.

Finally, Kay was able to relax:

Costa del Sol sound –

Waves rolling into the shore:

Such gentle music.

No Luggage or Money

Recalling Wendy,

“You have everything you need.”

Ocean, flowers, friends.

And this poem written to her cat.

The days come at me

like a series of rolling waves.

No time to miss you.

I've been swept away by Kay's senryu journals. The project would adapt well to the classroom. Here are some possibilities:

• Field Trip Senryu Journal
• Science Lab Senryu Journal
• Book Senryu Journal (instead of a reading log)

If I were to do a Kay Weeks' style Senryu Journal now, it would have to be about my garden. I've been neglecting it for several years, and the gloves are finally back on.

This is what my raspberries should look like, according to gardeningmags.net-genie.co.uk

This week, I began weeding the raspberry patch. It's so overgrown with grass that my husband wanted to dig it up.

Yanking long, dead grass --

like pulling a mean girl's hair.

She's gone! Room to grow.

Keeping a Senryu Journal for a specific span of time (a trip, a project) is a manageable poetic habit. During National Poetry Month, I'll be looking at many writing rituals and habits -- munching while writing, listening to music, scheduling dedicated writing time, even strange habits of famous poets. Look for a new post every day, beginning April 1. Several Poetry Friday regulars will be chiming in about their writing rituals.

Today's host is my dear friend Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe, our last Poetry Friday before National Poetry Month!