National Poetry Month Prep

Welcome to the National Poetry Month Blog. I present this to you early because April is soon and there are many things I need to ask you to do. You may think I'm going to chastise you for not living a poetic enough lifestyle, but I am not going to take offense if you don't smoke to excess,
are less poetic when you are intoxicated,
haven't been drunk and had the shit kicked out of you,
and especially if you haven't killed yourself.
These things are old fashioned and don't really make you a poet anymore. The age of black turtlenecks and berets is over.
Jazz is still cool, but Jazz will always be cool

This is not why I am here. How do you plan to celebrate National Poetry Month. I knew a guy who want to as may poetry readings as he could. He just listened to poetry for an entire month. That was cool, but that was his bag, it may not be yours.

I'm gonna give you a list of things to do for National Poetry Month. I'm gonna plug some stuff that I dig, because I think it's cool. It's a blog, it's meant to be a little self serving.

let's hit the basics

1-WRITE. No Poetry=No Celebration

2-Go check out a feature you have never heard of. This should apply to the whole year. Poetry can't grow if you don't look in different places

3-Go to a different open mic than usual. I'm all for being faithful to your "house" but the way to grow as a writer is to mix it up. There are a lot of great open mics out there. (I'm partial to W4tB,but, In One Ear, Poetry Love Letters, Molly Malone's and the Cafe Gallery are very cool. There are more, I'm just not all that familiar)

4-if you don't have a "house" (an open mic you call home) find one. Don't give up. There are different styles of open mics, all designed for different temperaments and ideologies, there should be one that's your glass slipper, don't give up.

5-submit to publications (I'm bad at this one.) There are a million poetry journals, one of them may like you. Try Exact Change Only at exactchangepress.com. They're small. edgy and picky

6-whether formal or informal, workshop your poems. It's always better to share your work with someone who shares your passion.

7-Go to the Poetry Bomb. It is fun

8-feed the circle. Introduce people to people, connections may not get you famous but it will get you known around the community (could be a feature in that somewhere)

9-Go to places just to listen to poetry. It might be easier to choose showcases where no one out of the designated readers will be performing. Try the Second Sunday Top Shelf Poets at Powell's book store in University village.

10-no criticism is ever bad. It's only how you take it. Take it all and keep the stuff that helps.

I hope I'm not too off the mark or self-serving. I mean it all. The first open mic I ever went to, the host told me. "The first rule is to pull the next guy up." I believe that to this very day.
Peace, Love, and infinite number of Monkeys
David (Buddha 309) Hargarten