A Letter From the Editor: Happy National Poetry Month!

Dear Readers & Writers,

It's me again! You might remember me from my last Letter from the Editor.  I know, it's been too long. But I'm here now, so let's talk.

After a very long, challenging, and hopefully inspiration-filled National Poetry Month, it is finally (finally!) May. Phew. We here at Floodmark got our poetry on and had an all-month rager in front of our computers typing up poetry prompts and articles for you. Naturally, May comes as a welcome relief.

We are all 100% this duckling right now, am I right?
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It's also a great time for reflection on not only this past month's journey, but also our journey with creative writing. Take a moment to recognize how far you've come as a writer -- in the last year, the last six months, the last month, the last five minutes. With every sentence, you're becoming a better writer. And we here at Floodmark are so honored to be able to feed your creativity and help you on your way. You could call it our mission here.

So, if you're feeling like our little duckling friend, let's take a second to lay our heads on our notebooks and take a well-deserved nap. You've conquered yet another National Poetry Month. You've been tested by fire and have come out of the kiln a beautiful ceramic pot. And yes, even that metaphor was a little tired. *Yawn*

On second thought, let's pick this pep talk up after a power nap.

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Where were we? Ah, yes. Post-nap pep talk.  Poets, Writers, Artists, Readers, Dabblers, and Friends, your presence on Floodmark during National Poetry Month has turned out some pretty amazing stuff. I'd like to take a moment to give a mental round of applause to our tireless editors: 

Vernon Meidlinger-Chin, always a joy to read, has done such a fabulous job this month bringing more voices onto Floodmark. This month, thanks to Vernon's talent at bringing together artists and writers of all types, Floodmark was lucky enough to feature two such voices: Madeleine Wattenberg's piece "Tossing Away the Key, Reading the Locked Poem", and Brooke Austen's piece "Poem in the Bedroom". Both are not to be missed. If you've already read those, I suggest you check out Vernon's latest installment in his series "Idylls of the Khan".

Alyssa Froehling yet again brought us a wealth of inspiration from a variety of places. From video games, to artwork, to photography, she covers it all. You can check out her gorgeous photo project and poetry prompt featuring the legend of Persephone,  her beautiful piece on the power of a poetic community, her exciting piece on her favorite video game and what inspiration is to be found there, or her poetry prompt discussing memory and featuring the artwork of Sarah Shaw. There is always something for everyone in Alyssa's pieces, and I hope you've enjoyed the magic she's pulled from the everyday for you this month.

Rukmini Girish brought us advice every writer will find applicable in their lives this month. And amid the flurry of writing, often times these important things are forgotten. Luckily for us, we have Rukmini to remind us as she navigates the same waters. Whether she's bringing awareness to the literary playing field for translators and translated works, giving us the basics on writing a successful pitch letter, or reminding us to find a patch of grass and soak up the sun, Rukmini is always looking around in her own life and experiences as an MFA student to bring us fresh perspective on the writer's life.

Padraic Price focused his enthusiasm and energy on sharing a few of his favorite poems with us this month.  If you've never read "The Desiderata" or "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening", you'll want to after you read Padraic's posts. Read along with him and get some fresh insight on two classic pieces of poetry. Ask yourself -- what poems have influenced you the most as a writer? A more important question during National Poetry Month there never was!

Gary Miller, our resident video and sound expert, has been off on a wonderfully strange journey with Floodmark and his own production company, Best Worst Cantina.  This month, he worked on putting together our beautiful National Poetry Month reading series, featuring Gary, Alyssa, and Rukmini. If you're looking for some sounds to inspire you, look no farther than these lovely people reading the poetry and prose that inspires them.




And last, but certainly not least, the maddest props of all go out to our tireless social media manager, Kelsey Kammerzelt. Thanks to her amazing presence on our social media channels and behind-the-scenes work, you have Floodmark delivered to you daily in your newsfeed, on your pin boards, and more. What would we do without her? Perish, probably.


And of course, where would we be without you, our lovely readers? (Answer: nowhere. Seriously. We'd be crazy people talking to ourselves.) We applaud your work this month, and especially the amazing poetry that you've been submitting to our White Elephant Poetry Contest! Which, by the way, is still going on! We've extended the deadline to this Friday, May 6, so submit before it's too late! We're so excited to start reading and sending you feedback. As an added bonus, we'll start work on our bi-weekly email newsletter soon -- so stay tuned for more Floodmark news delivered straight into your inbox. (If you submitted to our contest, you're automatically on the mailing list. If you didn't, you can subscribe using our handy little sign-up form on the right-hand side of the blog!)

It's been a huge, insane, beautiful, sleepless, wonderful month. And we wouldn't have wanted to share our inspiration, our challenges, our advice, and our voices with anyone else. Thank you for another wildly successful and fun National Poetry Month.


Now let's all get some sleep, for real.

Read more of Alexandria's work on Floodmark.