National Poetry Month 2022

Hi friends,

Thanks to everyone who reached out about enjoying my handwritten poems for April 2022. It turns out that the end of April was a bit of a battle and the end of April won, so I decided to wrap up the project with a single post highlighting some other poems, poets, and poemy things.

First, I got to teach a class called ”Poetry Alive” at the Golden Library in mid April. I highlighted two poet laureates, Joy Harjo (the current US Poet Laureate) and Bobby LeFebre (Colorado’s current Poet Laureate). If you want to read some of Joy’s poems, and watch one of Bobby’s, you can see the outline I used for the class here.

Speaking of Bobby LeFebre—carve out and hour and check out Cuentos de Colorado, which aired on Rocky Mountain PBS last week. It’s terrific.

Next! The first part of lyrics of a song I am loving. This is Big Thief’s song “Not.” I got to see them perform last week at Mission Ballroom in Denver. It was amazing. Listen to the song as you read for maximum pleasure.

And! I got the news in early April that White Lung is a finalist for the 2022 Colorado Book Award in poetry (!!!). On April 29, I got to read along with the other three poetry finalists, Morgan Liphart, Wayne Miller, and Ruth Obee; and the finalists in literary fiction, Claire Boyles, Wendy J. Fox, and Mark Stevens reading Gary Reilly’s work. All were amazing and I am honored to be in such great company.

Check out the full list of CO Book Award finalists and reading schedule here.

April’s over, but poetry’s still alive and well. Check out my upcoming summer camps for kids and a panel on writing for social justice at Lighthouse Writers Workshop. And—if you’re still reading and you like this blog, please follow it and maybe forward it to a friend!