Now that National Poetry Month has come to an end I can tally up the poems I wrote during the month of April. Like other poets, I took the challenge to write at least one poem a day for the entire month. Over the course of 3o days, I wrote 76 poems, nearly filling an entire journal.

Nearly filled!

Now, before you think I’m some amazing poetry writing machine, it’s worth noting that of these 76 poems, only a handful will move forward to the next stage in the writing process – the editing/workshopping phase. Many of the poems I wrote in April aren’t good enough/complete enough to work on further. Fifteen of the poems I wrote this month were for the Arlington County Library’s The Poet Is In and while I absolutely love participating in that each year the poems I write are for the library patrons and not something I would workshop or polish. And that’s okay because just the simple act of writing each day is a good habit for a writer. It keeps the creative juices flowing.

In addition to having a goal of writing a poem each day, I also set a goal of reading fifteen books of poetry this month. I came close, reading thirteen books of poetry. A little short of my goal but considering some people don’t even read thirteen books in the entire year I think I did okay. And I read some damn good poetry this month.

But just because the month is over doesn’t mean I’m going to be any less focused on my writing. I’ll use the momentum to keep writing and keep putting words down on paper. And I’ll shift focus a bit to other things, like the poetry reading/book launch for my chapbook, The Violence Within. It’s Sunday, 6 May from 7-9pm at The Third Floor (4200 9th St NW, Washington DC). It’s free and open to the public so I hope to see you there!