I wouldn’t say that National Poetry Month is my favorite time of year. The beginning of spring is frantic with its drastic stops and starts, and frantic is one of my least favorite feelings. This month also ensures that I’ll work harder than I do at most other times of the year, but gosh, thankfully, I do love my work.
One of the things that I love most about being a poet is that I get to make up my job. On the timeline of my poetic career, I’ve gone from balancing a typewriter on my lap at beloved farmers’ markets and weddings, to hugging Michelle Obama at the White House. My successes haven’t been prescribed, predictable, or overly familiar. My job is one of imagination and so, I envision each step as a sacred aspect of the experiment. I never know what will happen! Sometimes my grand ideas work out, sometimes they fly off in the wind. Sometimes it’s really fulfilling to build my creative path from nothing, sometimes it’s really lonely and stressful.
But one thing that’s become very clear over the last few years is this: National Poetry Month gives me this amazing excuse to go on and on about poetry without feeling like too much of a salesperson or fanatic. I do need to sell things in order to live, but sales aren’t my obsessive end goal. What is my obsessive end goal? Well, I believe each poem possess its own answer to that question, its own glorious outcome that’s typically steeped in inspiration, clarity, and relief.
I’m ecstatically inspired by poetry every day, but there’s nothing single-minded woven into my great zealousness. This is a month that we’ve collectively set aside for poetic celebration on a national level, and my goodness do I have outlets for our shared observance! Scroll through my carefully constructed slides and see if there’s anything that strikes your fancy. I’m looking forward to it all!
The uploading process takes a while for these audiobooks, but it’s all in motion and I’m so happy this gift is finally coming to fruition! Ready your ears and keep a lookout for these recordings as they appear throughout the month of April.
If you want to get a feel for what it sounds like when I read my work, here are a few live recordings from previous National Poetry Month readings.
I’m thrilled about the shape of this new class, too! I can’t wait to dig into poems in real time together through the glowing Zoom portal. Feel free to reach out with any questions if the class seems too abstract or you want to know more about my vision for it.
Thank you for receiving my endless efforts. Thank you to the woman in the front row at my recent library reading who knew all of my books. What a gift it is to participate in this exchange of ideas, in this weird flow of feeling put into words. It’s an honor. I’ll be tooting my horn about it all month long. Thank you to anyone who joins the song.
With infinite gratitude,
Jacqueline
I’ll leave you with a poem about poetry from my book “Help in the Dark Season.”
