The Challenge

Leslea Newman, current poet laureate of Northampton, has issued a challenge to poets in the Pioneer Valley to write 30 poems in 30 days and to raise money for the Center for New Americans Family Literacy Project. I'm going to give it a try.

I had a discussion about this project with a friend of mine recently. We talked about the inherent tension of this project. (He went on to write a column in the Valley Advocate about it.) On the one hand, it's great to get poetry out there and to try to turn people onto it. On the other hand, it risks trivializing poetry, a form of literature that my friend and I both care deeply about and have dedicated a certain amount of our lives to taking seriously.

"Remember, they don’t have to be great poems," writes Newman. "They just have to be poems. But you may very well surprise yourself."

Well, I'm sure there will be some dashed-off poems along the way. But I could use the deadline inspiration. So I'm creating this blog with the intention of writing those 30 poems in those 30 days, starting Nov. 1, and moreover, allowing you the reader to follow along. If you would like to contribute to the charitable end of this enterprise, e-mail me at "avarnon at crocker dot com" as I'd say it if I was speaking to you. A dollar a poem is $30 total (assuming I'm good for all 30). A nickel a poem is $1.50. A dime a poem is $3. A quarter a poem is $7.50. Fifty cents a poem is $15. Or comment and say hi.