Dear Friend of The Poetry Project,

What’s worse than poetry? Nothing comes to mind. Maybe this: an entire organization devoted to poetry, staffed by poets, compelled to foster the craft and to support writers whose work exists in a spirited realm beyond categories. How can this organization be allowed to continue? It’s an outrage!

Nevertheless, the people of The Poetry Project continue to defy expectations. They — we, really, for anyone who has set foot in The Project becomes part of it — we are bounding forward into our 46th year, true to the traditions with which we began our first. But it’s not without struggle. We feel the dark economy closing in from all sides, the shadow of expenses covering more and more of the income we labor longer and harder to maintain. Members and donors have kept The Poetry Project aloft since it was just some wild idea a few poets had. It’s this generosity that has most recently helped us overcome the challenge of what could have been a catastrophic rent increase in 2010.

If not for donations from those who value our mission, we would be some long-gone thing people would only reminisce about. The truth is, our golden era begins each time someone discovers a poet in the Parish Hall on a Wednesday night, or stays for the whole New Year’s Marathon — or when someone is inspired to make a donation. Take a minute to think about some great experience you’ve had at The Poetry Project and how your gift ensures you, or someone else, will get to have another one. Then click this link and drop a golden egg or two into your screen. We even have a gift for you if your donation is $50 and up: a limited edition, letter-pressed broadside, printed by Ugly Duckling Presse.

At The Poetry Project we maintain the belief that a poet reading her work to an open audience is a revolutionary act that is vital to our culture, and to whatever comes next. Creating time and space for poets to do this work is at the heart of The Poetry Project’s existence. I hope that you will be able to join us for some of our upcoming events, and I wish you all the best in your endeavors during the coming year.

Warm wishes,

Brendan Lorber

Poet
Poetry Project Member 
2011 Workshop Leader