{lab} start your spring with poetry

We just moved from Florida to Connecticut. In Florida, we were already using the AC to cut humidity and heat. After our first week here, we woke to this magical scene. A spring snow shower, it is called. Many of you already know about this and a fair amount of you might groan at something like this (especially after a winer full of them!). But my kids woke up and started singing (a nice rotation of Les Miz and Christmas carols) and running outside in their PJ's to start a day of play. They knew it would not last more than the day and were determined to eek every last drop of essence from the snow. 

Poetry does that for me. It heightens my senses and makes my kaleidoscopic eyes rotate to see everything new and different. Its distillation of words and razor sharp (at times) clarity of idea hits me with a sort of urgency of emotion. A well chosen poem can begin/end my day with the punctuation of closure or an unravel an open weave to my thoughts as the day wears on. My kids find comfort and laughter and sadness in all their favorite poems. The language, rhythm, and imagery create rooms of familiarity and comfort as they drift off to sleep.

This lab is a small invitation to invite poetry to your table for the month. It is nonacademic and was written with curiosity and exploration in mind. I have attempted to include a wide variety of poets (it is not all Mary Oliver) mostly contemporary but not all. Each day, you get a poem to read, copy, respond to, share.... There will also be a handful of simple craft-y ideas as well as some writing games and maybe a few surpasses along the way. 

I hope you will join us. You can do that here.