As National Poetry Month comes to an end and, with it, this year’s 30 for 30, I have some thoughts I’d like to share.
As I said at the beginning of the month, I was very apprehensive about a 2-line poem. I’m so glad I took the risk and that all of you took the challenge. Over the years, I have found that risk-taking almost always leads to something exciting, especially when it comes to writing. And this year’s 30 for 30, comprising 58 poets, was no different. I was worried that I wouldn’t reach 30 this year. You proved me wrong.
Let me just say that David Lott, our judge, has his hands full. I don’t know how I would choose a winner from the poems that were submitted, because, in my mind, they are all winners. Everyone of them has some image or some thought that leads one to contemplate. And, as Joan Dobbie commented several times, each day’s poems seemed somehow to fit together. (I assured her that this was simply serendipity).
From Grace Cavalier’s “brown cow” to Beth Huddleson’s “glassy state” to Joseph Cates’ “bombshell in bikini” – the images jump off the page and cause you to wonder. Which is what a poem is supposed to do! And many of your poems are, what my undergraduate poetry professor, Stephen Stepanchev, would have called, richly ambiguous, a phrase that has stuck with me till this day. Would that we could always be richly ambiguous!
I want to thank everyone for taking part in this this year’s challenge. And I want to thank those who took the time to comment (validation is so important) and to David Lott for volunteering to judge (I need to come up with a way to repay his enthusiasm and kindness).
In case you are interested, your poems have reached word wide to 17 countries, including China, Canada, Afghanistan, New Zealand, Lebanon, Jordan, Brazil, Ireland, the UK and France. I think you will agree that an international audience is something to strive for.
In the past, I’ve always offered our poets a theme. This was the first year, I believe, that I offered a challenge (other than a challenging theme, that is). I think I will continue to do so in the future, and I’m already thinking up possibilities for next year with several thoughts currently in mind. So I hope you will consider joining with me again next time.
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Thank you everyone. Until next year…
