What I learned from this experiment...

National Poetry Month has come and gone. It would be cliched to say that the month went by in a flash, but cliches are used for a reason: they're undeniably true. April was my busiest month at work, a busy month with travel, and a busy month of writing. This month I relayed for life, I traveled in New Jersey for work, I saw my cousin get married in Illinois, I went to a writing workshop, commemorated the one year anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy, and did countless other things. Most importantly, I shared one of my favorite poems with all of you each night. The essays I wrote about these poems were not work; they were an exercise in centering myself. Each day as I sat down to post a new blog entry I was reminded, through this process, of the things I value and the travesty of easing them into the peripheries of my life. I preached in previous blog entries about how these poems spoke to me. I'm not delusional; I realize these poems will not speak to each of you. My hope was that through my words you would feel and see a glimmer of the poem's magic. And from this spark, you just might want to read the poem again, or explore more poems and poets. If that happened---well, then I guess my goals were achieved.

There have been questions about if I will keep this blog going even though national poetry month is over. I'm contemplating the idea and have yet to come to a conclusion. I'd like to continue it, but I'm not sure I have enough favorite poems to last every day of the year. I might have to wait and make this an annual endeavor for April of every year. We'll see. But in the meantime, I did promise to post some of my own poems on this blog, mainly because you asked me too---well, my biggest fan asked me to and how can you say no to your mom. I'll start with a poem of my own and a brief essay this coming Monday, May 5. This should continue for a week (possibly longer if I find enough poems of mine that I believe suitable for public consumption).

Thank you for reading, thank you for commenting, and thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day to embrace poetry.

All the best
Matthew Kaberline