Writing on...community

Despite April's cruelty, what with sun and then sudden frost, the manic rush towards Finals with its portfolios and surprises, and the summer looming with its large promise of enough time and accompanying lack of excuses not to write, this month has perhaps been the most productive for poetry in a long time.

I was invited into a community of writers (old hands from my MFA program) to commit to a poem a day for April. Here I am at the end of the month with 30 new poems and renewed friendships with a small group of talented writers. We had such a constructive time, we're extending the challenge--austensibly for May--in order to revise and critique. My hope is that this new community of poets will carry on for as long as we can work together and benefit.

I used to say that all I needed was a keyboard and a deadline to make the words flow. It's still almost true. I need to knock out that word "all" though. I also need to be around other writers who take this writing business seriously. We don't need to be friends, or do coffee, or swap books or anything (although that's definitely not verboten); we just need to spur each other on. Sometimes that happens purely because I see someone else put down some brilliant words, and I'm jealous and need to compete. Or sometimes it's because I'm the the one who finds the brilliant words . Either way, the community acknowledges the event and supports the effort.

I'm hoping the lack of a daily deadline for May won't dilute my enthusiasm or output. I'm hoping to revise ten poems from the April batch which means I need to be posting every three days. That's probably compulsive enough for me.

Image from the USM Stonecoast site: The Stone House, Maine.