You Must Be Present to Win: A Celebration of National Poetry Month

Earlier this month, I read a beautiful essay by Scott Edward Anderson on  Poetry as Practice: How Paying Attention Helps Us Improve Our Writing in the Age of Distraction. I commend the entire essay to you. Here’s the link: https://www.cleavermagazine.com.

Anderson writes about our tendency to move through life without being truly present:

…it sometimes seems like our minds are on auto-pilot and we are not truly paying attention, causing us to miss both questions and answers…For me, the practice of paying attention is part of the practice of poetry, as the practice of poetry is part of paying attention, a cyclical, symbiotic relationship.

–Scott Edward Anderson

In recent years, I have returned to writing poetry as a way of both paying attention to the world around me and being fully present in the spaces I inhabit. There is nothing more freeing for me than walking into the woods with no agenda other than to simply be present.

Out of that experience of attentiveness, inspiration flows. And I hope that over time, this practice of paying attention will help me to remain present in those spaces that aren’t nearly so inviting, but still need my presence and my attention.

My blog is filled with poetry and photographs from my time spent in nature. In fact, my initial desire to create a blog was simply to gather all of my poetry into one place and to make it available for others. The poems are categorized by season: spring, summer, fall, and winter.

So, in celebration of spring (which finally reached my neck of the woods!), and as a way of culminating National Poetry Month, I thought it might be fun to invite you to share in my first ever blog contest and giveaway!

Wouldn’t you love to win a fun poetry package filled with lovely things from my favorite local bookstore, Dragonfly Books in Decorah, Iowa? Included in the poetry package is a copy of A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver, Emily Dickinson note cards & envelopes, and a journal to inspire your own writing. Yea!

All you need to do to be entered in the contest is to comment on this blog post with your favorite poem from the ten spring poems I currently have listed on my blog. You can read them here: https://staceynaleancarlson.com/category/spring/.

And while you’re visiting my blog, why not subscribe? You can do so by scrolling nearly to the bottom of any page on the blog. There you’ll find a place to enter your email address. By subscribing, you’ll receive notifications of new posts by email. Just below that is a search button, which could come in handy some day, and (my favorite!) a photo gallery featuring some of my favorite photos from time spent in nature.

So, comment on this post by midnight on Monday, April 30 with your favorite of my spring poems. Your comment will enter you into the contest. A winner will be chosen randomly and notified by email on Tuesday, May 1.

You need not be present to win at this particular contest, but being present to our lives is certainly a win. Together, let’s practice being present, paying attention, and maybe even writing some poetry!

Thanks for reading and celebrating National Poetry Month with me!