Happy Spring! What better way to celebrate the joys of the season than to read and write poetry! After all, April is National Poetry Month. And spring and poetry go together like peach tree blossoms and monarch butterflies.
If you love poetry, I hope you’ll consider supporting a poet this month. As some of you know, I am one of 9 poets writing a poem every day this month as part of the 30/30 project sponsored by Tupelo Press, a non-profit organizationin North Adams, MA. And today being April 1, my first poem is already up. Scroll down to the 4th poem to read “Too Bad You Were Never Mine.”
It’s a little scary because I average just 2-3 poems per month. Can I do it? Write a poem every day for an entire month? And if the sheer act of writing isn’t enough, my fellow poets and I are (gulp) putting our work out into the world before it’s passed the rigors of serious revision. Please, please pardon our dust.
Because I hope that my family and friends, fellow writers, and the subscribers of my blog believe in me, I’m hoping that you’ll read my work when you can, and consider supporting me with a small donation. Poets don’t ordinarily set up tables outside grocery stores nor do we host pancake breakfasts, but our needs are just as worthy as the Girl Scouts and the Kiwanis. The power of expression is one of humanity’s greatest gifts and to see it wither on the vine would be nothing less than humanity’s greatest tragedy.
Tupelo Press is a prestigious non-profit press, and for 17 years their mission has been to publish new voices. They are giving my work some exposure, and bringing me into a community of over 350 alumni helping each other publish our work.
There are so many ways you can support me and Tupelo. A subscription to fabulous books of poetry, sent to your home. A one-time donation at any level. I hope you consider supporting me, and supporting this amazing press I am representing this month.
I have set a lofty goal – $1,000 – but I think we can do it together. In the words of the Greek philosopher Parmenides: “For you cannot know what is not – that is impossible – nor utter it. For it is the same thing that can be thought and that can be.”
Ashley Memory 
I have faith in you Ashley! I trust you will be able to write 30 poems in 30 days – and they will be amazing as always. I look forward to following you and all the writers who have accepted the challenge on behalf of Tupelo Press.
Dear Ashley, you have what it takes to write a poem a day! You have ideas that sparkle and diction to go with the ideas. What more do you need? Just open that trunk in the attic and you’re on your way! Always, Mary