Today is the last day of April, and as such, it’s also the final day of our National Poetry Month celebration. It’s a day for us where joy and grief mix. What fun it’s been to spend a whole month featuring our favorite poets and poems, new and old, local and far away. How sad we are that tomorrow it’s back to “business as usual.” Thank goodness the world is turning green and blooming, cheering us up and reminding us that poetry is there for us every season, every month, every day, every moment, we just have to open ourselves to it.

Ross Gay came to read at CSU last Thursday evening. It was an amazing reading that we’ll share more about later this week. In light of it and as a way to wrap up our celebration, express our gratitude, it seems only right to share with you a recording of Gay reading his poem, “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude.” It’s as close as we can get on the blog to setting off fireworks.

Consider this your charge for not just the next month but for the next 365 days: Read more poetry. (And if you need any recommendations, just ask us).