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Welcome to April. It may be the last day of March, but here at Knopf we're so thrilled to begin our annual National Poetry Month festivities that the 2006 Poem-a-Day program starts early. Below you'll find the first installment. It's a poem by David Young from his gorgeous collection of poems called BLACK LAB. As we say hello to spring, this work is a true celebration of the possibility and joy ahead. If you're a new subscriber, here's how the month will work. Each day, for the next 30 days, you will receive a new poem by e-mail. Plus, this year we begin a new tradition, the Poem-a-Day Podcast—iPoetry for your iPod! At the end of this issue, you'll find a recording of David Young reading the title poem from BLACK LAB. Then, coming next week, Joan Didion will read to you from the work of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Knopf's poetry editor Deborah Garrison will read a favorite poem by Jane Mayhall, Knopf poets such as Sarah Arvio and J.D. McClatchy will read from their work, and this is just the beginning. So please feel free to forward these e-mails and audio clips to friends who love poetry. Let them know they can sign up right here. It's going to be a fantastic month. Walking Home on an Early Spring Evening Every microcosm needs its crow, something to hang around and comment, scavenge, alight on highest branches. Who hasn't seen the gnats, the pollen grains that coat the windshield— who hasn't heard the tree frogs? In the long march that takes us all our life, in and out of sleep, sun up, sun gone, our aging back and forth, smiling and puzzled, there come these times: you stop and look, and fix on something unremarkable, a parking lot or just a patch of sumac, but it will flare and resonate and you'll feel part of it for once, you'll be a goldfinch hanging on a feeder, you'll be a river system all in silver etched on a frosty driveway, you'll say "Folks, I think I made it this time, I think this is my song." The crow lifts up, its feathers shine and whisper, its round black eye surveys indifferently the world we've made and then the one we haven't. TODAY'S PODCAST: Listen to a recording of David Young reading "Black Labrador" KEEP CLICKING: About BLACK LAB Meet David Young Discuss today's poem in the Knopf Poetry Forum Download a free broadside of "Black Labrador"     Excerpt and recording from BLACK LAB. Copyright © 2006 by David Young. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. We welcome your feedback. Please send any thoughts or questions to knopfwebmaster@randomhouse.com You received this issue because your email address is in Knopf's Poem-a-Day mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to unsub_knopfpoetry@info.randomhouse.com. Or if you received this poem as a forward and wish to subscribe, send a blank email to sub_knopfpoetry@info.randomhouse.com.