The best thing grad school gave me was a community of amazing writers who routinely inform, challenge, and inspire me. As I mentioned before, it’s National Poetry Month. One of my friends from grad school, the superlative Jessica Kinnison, does her own poem-a-day email every April. I subscribe to the Poets.org poem-a-day email year-round, so in April I get a double dose of poetry in my inbox every morning. It reminds me to take a minute to slow down and read, and exposes me to poets and styles I wouldn’t otherwise find.

The poem Jessica sent today is a knockout. So many poems are about love, and so few of them say anything new. Mary Szybist’s “The Troubadours Etc.” is one of the rare triumphs. This is a poem I’ll revisit time and again.