“I stand in ruins behind you / with your winter clothes, your broken sandal straps. / I love to see you naked over there / especially from the back.” So sings Leonard Cohen in “Take This Longing,” and so the 2017 Poetry Marathon kicked off. Since 2009 (less one summer when funding disappeared), I have had the great fortune to spend my summers working with teachers through the Wyoming Writing Project (WWP). This morning, I sip coffee from my WWP mug – a gift from last year’s leaders. It’s a cup I only drink from on special occasions. The Poetry Marathon is special. · The goal: Write one poem every 24 hours. · The reward: In one day, I will have a chapbook worth of poems. This was daunting (I posted my first poem at 7:59 a.m. with one minute to spare). It was engaging (I used the prompts they posted for guidance). It was cathartic (I let the words and ideas and dreams spill onto the page). I believe in teachers as writers. And so, we write. Thro