Today is the first day of the rest of your poetry loving days. Officially, tomorrow is the last day of National Poetry Month. BUT this does not mean it is the last day to celebrate poetry. No way, mon. We hope you will celebrate poetry every month ahead for the rest of the year and each new year for the rest of your life.

To push you off in that direction (I picture you in a dingy afloat massive oceanic waters that symbolize, in this metaphor, all of poetry), I offer you some of Robert Pinsky’s insightful insights into the mystique of modern poetry. Again, I’m trying to reign in the less-fond-of-poetry-more-fond-of-wrestling among you. Pinsky, poet guru, or Poet Laureate/translator/consultant to the Library of Congress/beaucoup award winner/professor has addressed the topic of modern poetry in this Slate Magazine article. Take a look at it; it’s quite helpful and rich with excellent poetic examples in his mini lesson.

For the been-reading-poetry-since-before-I-could-speak among you, I offer a list of
hot-off-the-press books from the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses [CLMP]’s program called Face Out, which features emerging writers.

Now you can’t say I sent you off to sea without a life preserver.