Gloria Anzaldúa reminds us that responsibility means literally the ability to respond. There are many forms this response can take – in Ohio, a response to SB 5 is to organize a public referendum vote with the goal of repealing this un-democratic law. But poetry can be a response, to. And in that vein, I wrote the poem “Love Poem for Scott Walker.” Let me know what you think of it.

In the interested of making the PAD challenge a little more orderly for me, and to cut down on the responsibility of “finishing” every poem by forcing it to fit in the box of my preconceived notions, I’ve decided to write all my PAD poems as ten line poems, in five sets of couplets. I’m also trying to write with a different voice, different themes. Different everything, I hope. The pieces are so short they feel like poetic note-taking. I’m also not worrying about editing too much. That is, I’m not worrying about the writing as “final,” I’m not going back and nit-picking, on obsessing. At least not right now. Maybe when the month is over, if it’s worth it, I can go back in and pick, pick pick away.

I thought about trying to post my daily poem here, but that just seems like overkill. And as these aren’t finished pieces, I have no desire to foist them upon unsuspecting readers. Consider yourselves lucky.

via Radius: From the Center to the Edge.

On a more self-congratulatory note, my own chapbook manuscript Life Models was selected as an Editor’s Choice by Amsterdam Press! Woo-hoo! Thanks to everyone at Amsterdam Press; looking forward to working with you!