As I write, spring invites one outdoors to enjoy temperate weather and the lift of life across the land. Poems, too, rise like fresh air and burst forth in bloom as we celebrate National Poetry Month. I’m so grateful to have witnessed the shifting beauty of the season, from dogwood bloom along the trail from Florida to Tennessee to the graceful soar of swallowtail kites above Florida pines and the music of your poetry at our recently held 69th Annual Poetry Festival.

Congratulations to our festival winners and our student contest winners. We so appreciate our poets of all ages and the people who support their endeavors. Thank you to all our society members, for joining, for showing up, and for being a part of this community. We are poets serving poets and poetry across Tennessee and beyond, and we are grateful to each of you for your contributions to our society.

Although personal circumstances have curtailed my involvement with the society (and poetry in general) this past few months, I am grateful as ever for this community and dedicated to continuing to build our network of poets and poetry-focused organizations during my next term. THANK YOU to our board members and volunteers, who are powering us into the future with significant achievements: we will celebrate them in June. I wish our leaving directors and volunteers well and look forward to working with our new board and incoming volunteers over the next two years.

We will close our program year with 142 members, and I hope we see more poets join us next year. My dream is that Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) will become a hub for poets, connecting you to PST-sponsored activities and other community activities or groups that support you in your work, and connecting you to one another! If you are so moved, I invite you to help us reach that goal. We always have space for those interested in volunteering for roles small or large.

For each of our current members, my wish is that you found something of value in our programs this past season. I hope you will renew when your membership expires. For those considering membership, I invite you to explore our website, reach out to us, or visit with us as a guest and see if PST is for you.

A big thank you to members for your vote of confidence in our proposed leadership board. We are already working on plans and projects for the coming year. For starters, look for an update on contest submissions soon.

I invite you to join us May 9 at our next monthly member meeting, where we will introduce our new program director, Jeffrey Heath, who will present The Breath of the Line, a program exploring enjambment, line length and white space in poems. Bring a poem to share after the program! I hope to see you (and hear your poetry!) at a meeting soon.

With gratitude and anticipation—
Lisa Kamolnick
President, Poetry Society of Tennessee