In his first poems, Dustin wrote in a minimalist vibe but was also profane, provocative, on the edge of offensive. Something kicked in about a week into the month-long marathon project. A slight seriousness began to seep into his verse. His words became more descriptive, more probing, occasionally bullseye deep. I know he still wants to shock some folks, make them a little uncomfortable. But Dustin is digging this writing thing more even checking for off-rhyme, texture and metaphor.

Fed up with MAGA
gender roles & politics
he writes hot, cools down.

Shaun started writing this month in an easy-to-understand way. Every year I’ve admired his clarity and intuitive insights which are often nature-based but also connected to emotion. When you least expect a writer can take a quantum leap. Hang-glide off a cliff reaching for a new literary altitude. That’s exactly what Shaun did. “This took my breath away,” Karen said. “It felt like one of the poets we’d been taught in school,” Joseph added.

An abandoned corpse
of a moored-up Ford
takes off as a poem.

* Dear poets,  I really am going to miss reading LexPoMo’s poems even though I’ve burned the candle at both ends this year. I had 12 people to write about but I only managed to write about two because it took longer than I thought it would. There’s always next year!