Since staring this blog five years ago, its been a fun ride with crazy blogging events, book talk, giveaways, and more.  I thought in honor of five years, I’d talk about my favorite parts of this blog.

1.  Virtual Poetry Circle:  Even though I don’t get many responses week to week, I still get a kick out of sharing new poems that I find to post and share with others.  These poems can be from poets.org or from collections I’ve read the previous week or even long ago.  I try to vary the content from classic to contemporary, narrative to rhyming, and more.  This is always the fun part for me, “which poem will it be this week?” My index finger drumming my chin.  If there’s ever a poet you want to see featured, don’t hesitate to send a poem along or just recommend the poem by name.

2.  Interviews:  As a little girl, I longed to interview some of my favorite authors, and now I get to do that for real.  Most recently, I had the chance to interview a long-admired poet, Molly Peacock, who gave me the idea for the virtual poetry circle, and some local advocates for books and literacy like the Chair of the Gaithersburg Book Festival Jud Ashman.  It’s great to see what connects those who write books and those who promote them — love of the written world.

3.  National Poetry Month Blog Tour: This project takes a lot of planning and a lot of work to line up poets and authors, publishers, and bloggers.  Most people worry that they don’t have the “qualifications” to read and review poetry, but the only qualification you need in my book is the “joy of reading.”  If you love to read and you love to see how authors of novels create a scene or character, poetry should be a breeze.  Think of the poem as an unfolding blossom, opening up to the light with each word and each line opening to the sun.  Once you’ve reached the end, there is a full picture to behold.

4.  Community:  I started blogging around the same time as Anna, but soon fell into a wider group, led at that time by Dewey.  Even though she’s no longer with us, I know that her spirit lives on in the community — a community she loved and loved to see grow . . . and grow it has, exponentially.  I’ve got some old friends from that time, and I’ve made some new ones.  I love meeting these people in person at book festivals and conventions; it has been such a joy to share the love of books with people online and off, especially since my husband is not a big reader.

For this year’s blogiversary giveaway, You must tell me how you learned about Savvy Verse & Wit AND whether you have a favorite feature/post or read a book I recommended.

Prize pack will include:

a.  free access to 2012’s Best of List

b.  1 book of poetry from those I reviewed this year (your choice)

c.  1 book up to $25 from my local bookstore, Novel Places.

Deadline to enter will be June 30, 2012.  Open Internationally.

It has been four years since I started blogging here at Savvy Verse & Wit, and over that time, there have been many changes from different headers and backgrounds to a move from Blogger to WordPress self-hosting.  I’ve struggled a lot with what to cover from day-to-day, mainly keeping Sundays as my day off from the blog, and at times, blogging was more sporadic than consistent.

I thank all of my readers for sticking with me.  I also want to thank you for listening to me brag about poetry books and poets, for joining with me in the celebration of poetry each April, and for discussing poems with me in the Virtual Poetry Circle.  Speaking of, I can’t believe I’ve had 100 meetings of the circle and they continue to receive comments.  Thanks again for that!

This year, I’m hosting my first poetry challenge, The Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge, to encourage people who don’t read poetry to at least give it a try this year.  I hope that you’ve all thought about joining or have joined and tried a book of poetry.

Poetry is the one element of the blog that has been consistent.  I love it.  I write it.  I read it.  I recommend it.  Do I want you to love it? Yes.  Will I not like you if you don’t? No.  Will I like you better if you give it a try?  Probably.

I’m also the director of the Indie Lit Awards Voting Panel for Poetry this year.  We’re soliciting readers for this year’s awards, so please head over and sign up, unless you’re on the voting panel.  Voting members already have their contact information on the site for publishers to use.  Beginning in September and running through the end of December 2011, we’ll be soliciting nominations for the best 2011 published poetry book, so please check back here or the Indie Lit Awards site for information.  In the meantime, I’m hosting a list of 2011 published poetry books for consideration by readers and voting members, please keep adding to the list.

Ok, enough of my babbling . . . what I really want to say is that I appreciate you, whether you are lurking or commenting.  So I’ve got a giveaway for all of my readers in the U.S., Canada, and abroad.

To enter and win 1 $35 gift certificate to either Amazon.com or Better World Books:

1.  Leave a comment about what changes you’ve seen on the blog and enjoyed or what you miss from the old blog.

2.  Gain a second entry for reviewing the past 100 Virtual Poetry Circles and letting me know which poem you liked best from those posted.

3.  For 3 more entries, buy one of my recommendations in poetry and email me a receipt of that purchase to savvyverseandwit AT gmail

4.  For an additional entry, please spread the word about the giveaway via Twitter, Facebook, or your own blog.

Deadline to enter is July 12, 2011, at 11:59 PM EST.