Poetry Journals for National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month in the US and Canada, but this is an international swap. We will each fill a notebook with 30 poems by 30 different poets and send it to our swap partner by March 15th, which hopefully leaves enough time for the notebook to be received by April.

*Step 1: buy or make an appropriately sized notebook. You may be able to find a 32 or 36 page notebook in a dollar store or stationery store. It might be best to choose something lightweight in order to keep postage costs down.

*Step 2: decorate the cover (front and back) OR at at least 2 inside pages.

*Step 3: choose 30 poems by 30 different poets. Try to get creative with your selections so that you're including at least some poetry that your recipient is unlikely to have seen before.

*Step 4: either copy the poems into the notebook by hand, or type them and glue the pages in. Credit all authors and (if applicable) translators.

*Step 5: that's it! Mail your full notebook to your swap partner.

Additional guidelines:

*You may want to write each date in April at the top of each page (making the journal into a kind of poem-a-day calendar).

*Yes, you may include a poem by you if you choose. Yes, you may include local or otherwise obscure poets. Anything goes as long as there are 30 poems by 30 different poets.

*Length: haiku and tanka are perfectly acceptable. Longer poems (3+ pages) are also acceptable. Excerpts ok, but try to mostly include complete poems.

Some ideas on how to go "above and beyond" swap requirements (everything on this list is OPTIONAL; not a required part of the swap):

*decorate more than 2 pages.

*include short commentaries on some or all of the poems

*include an introduction

*include recommendations for additional poems or poets

SWAPPER REQUIREMENTS

Because this is a journal swap, I will be rigorously screening swappers who sign up to participate. You must have completed and been rated for at least three Type 2 or Type 3 (postal mail) swaps by the signup date, with no recent 1s and no 1s on journal (or similar) swaps. You must have logged in to the site within three days of the signup date, and must not have argued with bad ratings or been involved in other questionable swapping-related online activities. Newbies: if you won't meet the requirements by the signup date but would really love to join, please PM me.

Thanks. This'll be fun!