I haven’t forgotten my responsibilities to this blog. I grew weary of posting my unrevised poems and thoughts in April. Though my participation in the poem-a-day challenge meant that I wrote numerous poems, which is something to celebrate, posting them on the blog was too public a way to go about it. Even if only one generous and forgiving soul read the work (and my stats suggest it was more than one), it wasn’t ready to share.
In the past, I’ve shared daily poems in April among a group of fellow poets. This was motivating and encouraging, and we formed friendships with each other. However, three of our dear poets died and others withdrew from poetry. The group no longer functions as it did.
I have taken three classes this year and wrote a few poems in each. I’m grateful that each of them inspired poems. Classes, in particular, Zoom classes, have stopped working magic for me lately, probably because of the decline in the teacher-mentor/student relationship using this method. Thankfully, I also took a face-to-face poetry class at Write On, Door County with Donna Hilbert. It felt wonderful to be among poets at a table sharing work.
I’ve been revising these recent poems, but going slowly. Yesterday I stared at them, reworked them, and as I did my perceptions altered so that in two cases new endings slid into the spaces where the former endings had been. Perhaps things are going well.
