How Punk Rock Emily Dickinson & I Will Celebrate National Poetry Month

It's now officially National Poetry Month and Punk Rock Emily Dickinson (courtesy of Wendy MacNaughton) and I have a lot of ideas in mind to celebrate Poetry in the upcoming 30 days. So we have compiled a list of poetical things we will be doing.

 1. Buy a brand new Moleskine. (I got myself a new one, with a black cover, this morning).
 2. Write a least a poem every day for the upcoming 30 days. (Must write my first, today).
 3. Read at least a poem every day in April.
 4. Read a new collection of poems by a poet I've not read yet.
 5. Buy a new chapbook (support small presses, please!). dancing girl press by Kristy Bowen has an amazing offer: 3 chapbooks for 10$. Other presses you should sponsor are Juliet Cook's Blood Pudding Press, Margaret Bashaar's Hyacinth Girl Press. Also, you could join the fundraising for the new Hysteria Anthology, edited by E. Kristin Anderson, which will be published  by Lucky Bastard Press next May.
 6. Buy a new collection (Make a poet and a publisher happy!)
 7. Do some punk work with Emily's poems. Cut, paste, erase. Steal a line. (She is totally supportive this month!)
 8. Read a poetry book in a library (Make a librarian and a dusty book happy this month!)
 9. If you know any languages translate a poem in your mother tongue (make a foreign poet happy!)
10. Have a drink with a poet. (Poets love to drink. Ask Rimbaud!)
11. Tell a poet why you love her/his work so much. (Make a poet happy!)
12. Write a review. (Make a poet and a publisher happy!)
13. Hang out with a poet/poets.
14. Support a poet friend. (Advertise her/his work!)
15. Read one of your poems aloud somewhere around town.
16. Friend a new poet.
17. Edit a poem you think is not too good before clicking the delete button.
18. Scatter one of your poems around town. (It's fun, I swear!)
19. Write a poem en plein air (pretty much like the Impressionists painted)
20. Write a sonnet, a villanelle or a sestina. (Damned sestinas!)
21. Write a haiku or a tanka.
22. Ask somebody to write a poem for you.
23. Mourn a dead poet. (Write an elegy).
24. Follow a poet's blog (even mine, if you are so inclined!)
25. Attend a poetry reading.
26. Buy yourself something that reminds you of poetry (a mug, a poster, a magnet). Stick with it!
27. Carry a poetry book with you all the time.
28. Read a poet's biography.
29. Choose a poet as your National Poetry Month doppelganger or spirit guide. (Emily too, if you wish!)
30. Be the poet you have always dared to be!


Wishing all my poet friends and all poets around the world a lovely poetical month!