Kimberly O'Connor

Hello–

today marks day 25 of my 30 days of poetry over at Tupelo Press!

Last week, Tupelo launched a brand new website that makes it much easier to find the poems of individual poets on specific days of the month. Below are a few of the titles of poems I have written this month. To read them, follow the link to the May 30/30 project, then find and click the day at the top of the page, and then find and click my poem on the menu of poets on the left.

Day 23: My Therapist Asks What Are My Intentions for This Summer

Day 21: Question for My People

Day 16: Thresholds

Day 10: Serpents

Day 8: Quick! You have 15 minutes to write a poem about hope

Of course, you can read any and all days at the project site.

There’s still time to support the project, too. Beside being a fundraiser for the press, the 30/30 project is meant to inspire poets to get words on the page, and it has done that for me. This month, I have written more poems than I wrote in the last six months combined, and I have found that I have written at times and in places I never would have without the press (heehee pun intended) of the daily deadline: in my school office at 4 PM; in bed on my phone at 10 PM; in the evening during commercials of a Dodgers game; in my home office as I brushed my teeth before bedtime. It’s been a terrific gift to have external motivation to spend time and energy on my writing this month.

Speaking of gifts, here’s a recap of the gifts I’m offering as thank yous for support of the press, and my project:

$25 donation: poetry postcard mailed to your home this summer!

$150 donation: you get to give me a title or topic to write a poem about, and poetry postcard mailed to your home this summer!

You can donate here. I am $105 away from my goal! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated or read my work this month. It gives me hope that poetry is important, a pause of clarity and beauty in this chaotic and worrisome time.