[I don’t know what happened this month but I didn’t read half as much stuff as I would have liked to. Still got go to plenty of dope readings and some good poetry media that I still haven’t gotten a chance to blog about yet. I don’t see it happenin any time soon with my decision to jump into the fray of NaPoWriMo and writing a poem a day for the month.
Last year I was able to generate about 20 and most of them made it into a chapbook. This year I’m going to try to spread that focus around a bit and see if I can
a) complete a poem or two for a chapbook I almost have done
b) start a new arc in the Anywhere Avenue series that will result in another chapbook
c) write a very specific poem for an open call to honor one of my favorite elder poets
d) try to write some Oakland poems
The last challenge may be the hardest since my poetic voice is deeply entrenched in the rhythms, landscapes and mood of the Bronx. But that’s why it’s called a challenge. Right?
So to each their own and I wish everybody who will be writing new poems the best of luck. For those celebrating National Poetry Month in different ways–sharing other poems, writing reviews, spray painting Nicanor Parra poems on bridges (I kid, I kid. Really, who’s down?)–have fun spreading the poetry love. Now let me find my can of Krylon and get to some poems.]
• Hip-Hop Poetry and The Classics by Michael Cirelli and Alan Lawrence Sitomer
• Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss
• The Low East by David Henderson
• Swamp Thing Vol. 3: The Curse by Alan Moore
• Swamp Thing Vol. 4: A Murder of Crows by Alan Moore
• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture edited by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid
• The Date Fruit Elegies by John Olivares Espinoza
• With Walker in Nicaragua and Other Early Poems, 1949-1954 by Ernesto Cardenal. Selected and translated by Jonathan Cohen