Stepping down as laureate/anthology

For personal reasons, I am stepping down as laureate, effective immediately. Unfortunately, this means I will not be able to continue the anthology. I wanted to let you all know that, in case you were working on poems for it, and to convey my apologies to you.

I am very sorry. I hope your next laureate does better for you and for the forum.

Thank you for the kind words, and an extra thank you to those who contributed to the anthology -- I am really sorry it did not take off.

Jason shared his wonderful anthology poem in the main forum. May I encourage some of you who contributed, or who began writing something to contribute, to do the same (assuming you don't want to reserve first rights in order to submit them elsewhere)? While they've been moved to the critique forum, far more people read poems posted in the main forum.

Shakey, Maggie, Filigree, and others who've been inspired to write poetry again -- I'm grateful to you for saying so. It means more to me than I can say. I hope you will continue writing it. Please consider sharing your efforts with the forum (whether here or in critique). If you want a crit and I don't get to it in a day or two, ping me.

Ambrosia, no need to apologize! I missed you, but I know what a lot you had going on. (I know the same is true for a couple of our other regulars.) Life happens. I hope things are getting easier for you.

Debbie, I'm glad you're going to submit your poem. I liked it very much, as you know. Keep us posted if you get good news.

And yes, I'll be around to crit and comment, though I may duck out for chunks of time. My writer's block has broken (crossing my fingers that continues), so I hope I'll be posting poems too.