Five Favorite Books Feature, Poetry Month, April can feel like the cruelest month

To celebrate National Poetry Month, Deb Ager of 32 Poems is featuring poets talking about five of their favorite poetry books a day every day in April. Here is the calendar:

http://www.32poems.com/blog/2286/national-poetry-month-celebration-2

My list of five books will be up on April 22^nd if you’re interested. And you should be!

Is April the cruelest month?

I celebrated National Poetry Month by reading Eliot’s “The Waste Land” out loud last night to Glenn. Say what you want about Eliot, and I do, but the man could write. Then I celebrated by waking up at 2 AM with an anaphylaxis attack. I don’t think it was a result of reading The Waste Land, so let’s not blame Eliot for that. The doctors don’t know why I keep having these; I’ve restricted my diet to about fifteen “safe” foods, I’m on double-doses of antihistimines and such, but still, I just wake up covered in hives and shaking and other unpleasantness. Chronic idiopathic anaphylaxis, urticaria, and angioedema is what they call it so far. Usually a dose or two of extra Benadryl suffices (I’ve stopped going to the hospital every time; now I just call the allergist’s office and he talks me through whether or not my symptoms are under control and what else I need to take.) Still, it’s pretty exhausting, and this is the first day of class for my National Advanced Poetry class as well, which is always a whirlwind of questions and introductions and “do I really need to buy these books of poetry?” It’s funny how much MFA students of poetry hate to buy poetry.

Besides the odd allergic reactions I’m still out of commission on the walking front because of repeated injuries to my right ankle. I’d say I’m unlucky with ankles but at this point – two years of being on and off of crutches, despite religious physical therapy and that kind of thing – it goes beyond that. I really want to be walking again by my birthday at the end of the month. I’m planning to go out to look at the tulip fields in Skagit by April 30, something I really missed when I lived in California (though I did live by the rununculus fields in Carlsbad, so there were compensations.) So think good thoughts for me. Walking by my birthday! It’s a mantra!

I’ve been trying to remain fairly cheerful, through the horrible disasters and wars in the news, through the physical trials and tribulations, through rejections, through trying to set up readings for the new book and applying for grants and jobs. I really have accomplished quite a bit in the last few weeks (wrote two reviews, did a bunch of poetry subs, worked on promoting the new book, judged a high school poetry contest set of poems, did a grant proposal, etc.) so maybe my restricted walking has helped me find more time for work! Plus it has been cold and raining even more than usual here in Seattle, a postponement of the slightly sunnier April weather I’ve been hoping for – I’m always grateful to see the thermometer above 50 degrees these days!

So, readers, let’s think of cheerful April things to not only promote poetry, but promote the people and the things in the world around us that are good. Write a note to someone you love, a thank you to a former teacher who made a difference. Write a review of a book you’ve loved. Subscribe to a journal you’ve always admired. We can do what we can do, and that is enough.