30 Poems, 30 Days: Inside a Poet’s Mind
by A. D. Joyce

Published by A. D. Joyce at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 A. D. Joyce
(revised, 10/2012)

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Foreword

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
~T. S. Eliot, “The Wasteland

The poems in this ebook were written during April 2011 to commemorate National Poetry Month. The poems originally appeared on my blog, Sweepy Jean Explores the (Webby) World. Commentary was added here to explain a little about what inspired each one.

National Poetry Month was first introduced by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996 to help increase appreciation for and awareness of the art form. Among poets who blog, some have taken on the challenge of writing a poem a day for the month and posting them on their websites.

When I first heard of the challenge, I was reluctant to participate because I didn’t think I had the discipline to do it successfully. However in 2011, I was going through personal turmoil in the form of the breakup of my 26-year marriage. Near the end of March, I was in the process of packing and had even found an apartment but it was not available for me to move into until May. Writing a poem a day seemed like a constructive way for me to channel my energy in the meantime.