How did I miss this?

It's National Poetry Month!

Though the month is almost over, I recommend we start with Pamela Spiro Wagner's "How to Read a Poem: Beginner's Manual" and do as she says, "Read just one poem a day," for the rest of April. There's the Poem-A-Day Archive here.

And in honor of the month, I'm going to do something that I haven't done for years. I'm going to post a poem I wrote. *Gasp*

Thrift Store

The toasters touch me:
someone’s crumbs still sound when I shake them.
There are the cameras, too. The photographs
still inside, waiting to be developed. No one will
recognize the places,
the frozen faces.

Shoes, bent by feet, worn out and then rejected.
Computer keyboards,
hair from dead pets stuck between the keys.
The carefully painted canvas I buy
to doodle over.

These are the ghosts we leave behind.
We abandon them underneath a sign:
DONATIONS

Do read a poem. Put it on your blog, if you have one. And carry a poem in your pocket on April 30th. In this increasingly non-literary world, it's good to remember the power of carefully crafted words.