30/30/30 : Inspiration, Community, Tradition :: Poetry Month 2012

(l-r: Sherwin Bitsui, Adam Falkner, Mina Pam Dick, Etel Adnan, Aimé Césaire)

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Welcome to the archive of the first Exit Strata poetry month celebration! As we originally announced, what we were seeking in the inaugural call for submissions for this rhizomatic exercise was shared brea(d)th: to have this month introduce our community to the universe of poetry that affects and alters ourselves and our colleagues, others with whom we may share a practice but whose influences are vastly different than our own.
As we read and write this work, other poets become important to us for a million different reasons, often ones we could never entirely anticipate or explain — in observing our community one quickly notices that each person’s own relationship with poetry has grown in diverse and unexpected ways, with little known, local, foreign, or forgotten poets taking up solid and subtantial residence in the heart, mind, and psyche of each — in turn, altering inestimably our relationship to craft.When we are in school or in workshop, perhaps even more than from the didactic intention we glean from our *community* a richness ofengagement and influence, as density of dialogue provides each of its participants an unending supply of suggestions — names, books, poems, movements, and so on.

An introduction to an entirely new voice that speaks to you, as a practitioner out of these systems, is a rare and potentially life-altering gift… one that Exit Strata’s international creative network has the chance to offer all of us, as we replicate that atmosphere here in the virtual Commons.
I am *very*, shakingly, jumpingupanddown excited for the brilliant and gorgeous poets we have “playing” with us this month. These people stepped right up to the plate with fervor and love, to bring a range of inspiration to our shared table that will blow your minds.

Lynne DeSilva-Johnson [Series Coordinator/Editor] on Mina Pam Dick
Pete Reilly on Mary Oliver
William (Bill) Considine on Elinor Nauen
Tishon Woolcock on Orhan Veli Kanik
Caits Meissner on Adam Falkner
Matthew Nelson and Jacob Perkins on Paul Legault
Gregory Crosby on Kenneth Fearing
Frank Ortega on Andrew Acciaro
Maryam Parhizkar on Paul Violi
Sarah Pinder on Libby Scheier
Pamela Laskin on Samantha Reiser
Frank Sherlock on Etel Adnan
Lancelot Runge on Philippe Soupault
Daniel Owen on Bill Kushner
Peter Milne Greiner on Stefan George
Karen Clark on Marilyn Nelson
Jim Lounsbury on Les Murray
Ben Wiessner on Dean Young
Jack Cooper on Hala Alyan
Annaliese Downey on CA Conrad
Tony Hoffman on Vicente Huidobro
Lauren Cappello on Lorine Niedecker
Elana Bell on Aracelis Girmay
Ana Božičević on Marguerite Yourcenar
Keetje Kuipers on Poets First Books (Olga Broumas, Richard Siken, Sherwin Bitsui)
Annie Paradis on Prageeta Sharma
Roxanne Hoffman on Urayoán Noel
Doug Van Gundy on Eamon Grennan
Lindsey Boldt on Aimé Césaire