National Poetry Month

Dear Readers,

Happy National Poetry Month! I wanted to share with you some of the ways I’m celebrating and encourage you to join me. This month I will be:

1. Spending even more time reading and writing poetry!

2. Accepting submissions from readers for favorite poems, poets, and books of poetry. You can submit them by emailing me at micahluedtke@gmail.com. On the last day of this month I will send out a compilation of all the poetry recommendations I receive.

3. Exploring online resources for poets. Poets and Writers is an amazing resource for poets and poetry enthusiasts alike. You can use the website to find local literary magazines and journals, either to read or to submit your work. The Poetry Foundation is a really great website with a wealth of poems and poet biographies. They have recordings of many of poems in the voice of the poet that wrote them, which is a really special way to experience a poem. Here is the poem Wilderness read by the author Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Which leads me to…

4. I am going to be rereleasing some of my previous poems with audio recordings of me reading them.

5. I’m also interested in hearing you read my poems. If you have a favorite poem from The Naturalist, you can submit a recording of you reading it to micahluedtke@gmail.com. With your permission, I will also share the recording (anonymously) with everyone in The Naturalist community.

6. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I am supporting my favorite poetry book shop Grolier. This amazing little bookshop in Cambridge is almost 100 years old and dedicated entirely to poetry. They hold poetry readings and have an amazing collection of books for sale. Like so many businesses right now, they are closed and only able to do online sales. I highly recommend ordering books from their website or making a contribution to the work they do. Or, if you have your own local bookstore, see if there are ways you can support them. If you don’t know if you have any bookstores nearby, you can check out Indie Bound to find one near you.

I hope you will all join me in celebrating poetry this month and every month.

Be well my friends,
Micah