Martin left me minding the Poetry24 shop this week and, as I have cheerfully informed him this morning, 'nothing bad happened' in his absence.

It's been a curious week here, with unlikely subjects sparking poems: Kat Mortensen's Jelly Bean Queen set the quirky tone, and Philip Challinor's edgy Pissed Off was an interesting piece for Easter week. I was also delighted to receive two submissions from popular blogger Fran 'Being Me' Hill - Recipe for a few weeks off work on the demise of the Best Before date and 21 April 2011 (which was the date of the future 'Judgement Day' in the Terminator films). I was thinking about the end of life as we know it, too, with my climate change poem for Earth Day: Dry Weather.

What do we learn from all of this? That it's worth looking at the smaller, quirky stories for inspiration too... and that we're always happy to look at broader issues if you can link it to a recent news article - so keep those submissions coming! Let's have some more quirky takes on the Royal Wedding, or surprise us with something completely unexpected.

But don't forget that all-important news link.

Clare

Martin and I have decided to use the Sunday slot for a brief editorial each week - let us know if you like it, or you just want the poems!

With the blog just two months old, we've been astonished at the variety, and encouraged by the quality of the poems we've received. And with 50 followers here, more on Twitter, and more than 5000 hits, it looks like the blog has hit a nerve.

In case you missed them this week, we've had poems that highlighted the implications of the MI5 recruiting in Scottish universities St Andrews Worksong and mourned the assassination of prominent Arab/Israeli theatre director Juliano Mer-Khamis in The show must go on. We've also had a poem that 'covered' the French burqa ban in France, uncovered, a powerful reminder of ongoing environmental impact in The Gulf and yesterday's extremely moving poem inspired by stillbirth figures released this week in Stillbirth. (For Grace).

We're now listed on MsLexia, Duotrope, National Writers in Education and Write Out Loud - all sites which are well worth a visit.

If anyone would like the Poetry24 logo to add to their blog, please get in touch, but meanwhile thanks for reading the blog, for spreading the word about it and for contributing to it - keep 'em coming!

Clare