Thanks For a Wonderful National Poetry Month

The Academy of American Poets

Good Evening Readers!

Well, it's April 30th, and if you've been following the past few weeks, you know what that means - the end of National Poetry Month. I'm really sad about it! I have so loved sharing in the magic of my favorite craft with everyone!

I just want to say thank you to all of you who have dropped by to visit during these busy days!

Not that I am very widely read or anything, barely noticed is more like it - but I am getting there, just started blogging in September, so I really appreciate the support of all my readers - especially this month! Your loyalty has meant the world to me, and don't forget that I love feedback, so please don't shy away from sharing. Comments at The Poetrycooker are set to "open" so you don't have to be an official follower to voice your opinion! I know that most of my readers actually aren't followers and I wouldn't want them to feel left out!! I want to hear more about you and what you would like to see from The Poetrycooker in the future!

I also want you to know that I not only plan to go on posting more and more poems, as before NPM, but that I also plan on making this blog more arts-centric. Anyway, the main focus of my upcoming posts will, in fact, be poetry, fashion, music, film and literature, (both fiction and non-fiction). One day, soon, and perhaps when I am a little braver, I will post some poetry under my own name.

Looking back, I  would like to thank the Academy of American Poets for starting Poetry Month in NYC back in 1996, and National Poetry Month in 2002. Without their devoted attention to the craft of poetry, and their recognition of poets and patrons aike, there would be fewer people out there who believed in the staying power of such a classic art form during this digital age. I would also like to thank The Poetry Foundation and Poetry Magazine for their endless inspiration through both their print and online publications. My parents Amy and Paul Salte desetve heaps of gratitude r as well as my High School Creative Writing teacher, Mrs. Jennifer Gainey for encouraging me to believe in myself as a writer. Also the entire Creative Writing Department at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, as well as the publishing department, through whom I have a professional publishing certificate. It is because of the first that I remain an inspired writer, and the latter that I am able to feed myself.

 It is because of people and organizations like these that I pursued Creative Writing as a college major, and later received a BFA in Poetry in 2007. It is because of them that I will forever love reading and writing.  I hope that you have enjoyed National Poetry Month and that you find the last few posts of this celebration as  inspiring as I do.

I would like to acknowledge the online community for their contribution to my celebration, including Pinterest, We Heart It, Facebook and Favim, and of course Google and Blogger. I found endless poetic and photographic inspiration in their public forums, and was also able to provide a wider audience links to my posts. Unless otherwise noted, all photographs are courtesy of We Heart It (weheartit.com). However, I do wish all my readers to know that while I am as thankful and equally dependent on technology as they are, that I write everyday in several journals and a notebook, and that I still  believe and covet the meaning and usefulness of  print and handwritten material, and I encourage them to never lose their passion for that original form of publication, While I am at in I also want to share a funny little fact with you all, and that is that I write most of my posts with the laptop strapped to my elliptical machine - I don't know whether to be proud or embarrassed about that, but there you have it!

I love all of you bunches, and hope to see you back again and again! And remember, never be afraid to say hello!

XOXO,

-The Poetrycooker

(Okay, I am done pretending like I got an award now)!

National Poetry Month #34