Since February 2017 I’ve been writing a new poem every single day. Recently I’ve been thinking about when & how my poem-a-day project should end & I think two years is a nice symmetrical number. 730 total poems. Today is the day. Poem-a-day is done!

The project initially began because, after I finished my MFA, I felt like I wasn’t being creative enough in my daily life, & my creative muscles were shrinking. The poems became little warm up exercises for my poet brain, just to get the juices flowing. As an avid journal keeper I’m used to processing life events through words, but the poems also gave me space to examine the things that happened to me over the past two years. Really they gave me space to think & chew on ideas.

I like to joke that 99% of the daily poems are terrible. They were more about the process of doing & practice than being any “good”. But I do still have my favourites. The poem-a-day tumblr will stay up at poemadaydoctoraway.tumblr.com if you feel inclined to explore it. I’ll continue writing poetry of course, & have reserved a highlighted instagram story for new compositions, @natalie_raymond. Below are some of my fave pieces from the project.