"It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there."

--William Carlos Williams

2016 was a great year for my family. Our youngest daughter was born in June, healthy and (mostly) happy, and our eldest turned two and cracked us up with her big personality. But, for a lot of Americans, including myself, the presidential campaign began the year with us throwing shoes at the TV, and ended it with us fearing for the world our children might inherit.

In what some have a termed a "post-truth" society, in a world racked with violence, racism, xenophobia, fear, and hopelessness, the arts--and poetry in particular--can serve as an powerful antidote.

This January, I have accepted a challenge to write a poem a day to be one of those many counter voices.

As part of this challenge, I'm helping to raise money for Tupelo Press, which has been a force for publishing poetry over the past decade and a half. Your support will give me inspiration as I write for thirty days this month, and for small presses like Tupelo, it's needed now more than ever.

Tupelo Press provides the venue, and I, accompanied by other fine poets, will each write thirty poems in thirty days. Previous 30/30 poems have been taken by over 90 journals and featured in over 40 published chapbooks. Support for Tupelo Press helps to keep publishing diverse voices that might never be heard otherwise.

Every dollar gives me confidence to write more, and helps the press place more poems in gorgeous books. Help me to help this distinguished press.

Please give and help spread poetry in these uneasy times! I'll even take requests for the subjects of poems...