Caught in the Downpour

It's raining, it's pouring...well, it's drizzling, if we're talking about the weather, but in a metaphoric sense, it HAS been pouring. With National Poetry Month on the horizon (only a couple more days) and Alexandria's Poem-in-Your-Pocket Day on April 30 to be organized and planned, and the awards dinner for the Alexandria Commission on Women, and a reading gig last week at Greenspring...I have been working hard to stay afloat. 

My laptop and I have been essentially conjoined for the past few days, and I have been pursuing a crash course in my relatively new Mac's capabilities vs. my tried-and-true Dell. I know the Mac can do what I want to do, but it's more familiar on the Dell--and thus faster for me. However, I still feel as if I am spending most of my waking hours transferring files via email or thumb-drive to and from whichever laptop requires them at the moment. I have promised myself that, as of May, I will become a one-machine woman again. 

If you are interested in PIYP Day, it is really starting to shape up. Everyone I talk to seems to be enthusiastic about playing a role--from my bank to the Athenaeum, from church friends to people I've met at the Folger Theater. I'm just beginning to realize that I am not in this alone, either. Cherylanne Colton has been wonderful at recognizing what needs to be done and who needs to be contacted and when. For a seat-of-the-pants organizer like me, she is a godsend: someone who develops workplans and lists vs. someone like me, who relies on serendipity far too often.

But, lest we forget the whole thrust of this month...let me issue a challenge to all you poets out there. The Academy of American Poets suggests that we challenge ourselves to write a poem a day this month, and I'm going to give it a try. They may not be (as Boris and Natasha might say) "gem every time", but if I could get something on paper (or onscreen, as it were) I'd at least have some raw material to work on during May. Thirty poems! Imagine that.  If I could do that, I might even be ready for my next round of readings when they come along.