IPA Older News

• Poetry Returns to Art on the Prairie November 11-13, 2022!
• IPA Sponsors First Poetry Slam Competition!
• Cedar Rapids Prairie High School Student Johnnie Each was selected to serve as 2022 Iowa Student Poet Ambassador. Read full article.
• Many of you have already received the sad news that our beloved Lucille Morgan Wilson, 95, passed away on Monday June 21st. Among the many other responsibilities in her career and her prodigious volunteer work, Lucille served as IPA Treasurer 1973-76, IPA President 1976-78, and IPA Editor-in-chief 1988-2016. Lucille will be greatly missed. Please feel free to share this information with all who knew her. You may find her obituary here.
• NEW Resources for Teachers, Parents and Students. We have asked teachers to share some ideas for poetry assignments you can use in preparing student submissions.
• For information on Shreya Khullar, the inaugural Iowa Student Poet Ambassador, see Ms. Kullar's bio. You can read her poem "The Hindi Word for Prayer" published in The Rising Phoenix Review. Ms. Khullar participated in our IPA LIVE! program this past July.

President's Message

"We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives...not looking for flaws, but for potential,"--Ellen Goodman

As we imagine a metaphoric stroll through the rooms of our lives, how will we view the rooms we occupy as poets? Perhaps these are private rooms we view with an overly critical eye--shutting the door to further exploration, closing them from the view of others. If we think of the new year as an occasion for a new perspective on well-loved space, perhaps 2023 will bring new light to the windows, we illuminate a brightness, color and warmth overlooked in the past.

The smallest changes may guide your poetic perspectives to the broadest transformations. Maybe that means devoting more time to reading--favorite poets combined with new-to-you collections. Fresh discoveries can be sources of inspiration! Perhaps you start journaling--a useful in-the-moment tool to capture beautiful and relevant details. Maybe journaling becomes a daily 15-minute practice--a place where your words wait for another day. What new perspective can another person's insight bring to your art? Share your work--feedback and letting time pass can be powerful sources of inspired revision. By our very nature, poets thrive in a world of perspective. This new year's exercise should be fun and satisfying, given our immersive, expansive minds.

My wish is that many of you will be eager to share this new perspective-taking by submitting your work to the 2023 Lyrical Iowa poetry contests, opening Jan. 1. Decide you will enter for the first time--or enter again after a long hiatus. Perhaps you will try your hand at a new category--ekphrastic writing, national and world events or haiku. Check out the rules on this website.

I hope you find new comfort in these rooms where your poetry grows. IPA members share many commonalities with each other--we struggle with self-doubt, hesitation and a desire to capture a bit of the world through our art. We are blessed with creativity--an urge to create beyond the ordinary. Let that guide you in 2023.

Cheers,
Dawn Terpstra
January 2023

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