Donate to Alabama disaster relief and I'll write you a poem

Many of you have probably seen or heard the news. April 27th, 2011, a series of incredibly violent tornadoes tore through central and north Alabama, beginning as early as 5:30 a.m. and pummeling us all throughout the day and night.

To give a geographic perspective to this, I'm located in Montevallo, AL. Tuscaloosa, one of the hardest hit towns, is only about 40 minutes west of us. Cullman, another town devastated by the storm, is just on the other side of Birmingham. Although my town made it through the storms relatively unscathed, elsewhere in Alabama, there are thousands of people without power, and many hundreds more displaced from their homes. Businesses are destroyed, including a few industrial plants.

As of the latest count, there are 149 228 249 confirmed dead,, and that number is expected to rise as search-and-rescue teams claw through the wreckage. Hundreds more are injured or missing.

This is a video of the tornado that struck Tuscaloosa. Shortly thereafter, this monster struck downtown Birmingham, and then kept going.

4-27-11 Tornado Tuscaloosa, Al from Crimson Tide Productions on Vimeo.

This is what that tornado left in its path:

One of my friends in Tuscaloosa lost her home (read their story here), and her cats are missing (edit: two of the three cats have been found!). Another lost the clothing business he's spent a decade building. In Cullman, a tree fell on the car of another friend of mine, and that's luckier than a lot of people are in that town. Thankfully, I've been able to get in touch with most everyone I know, and they're safe.

I can't express with words how...startled I am by this. Storms aren't a stranger in Alabama. We get them all the time, but we've never had anything like this. Never. Something in me wants to help, and even my own donation to the Red Cross and contacting volunteer clean-up organizations doesn't seem like enough. So, as a poet, I'm going to do what I do best. If you donate to the Red Cross -- any amount, big or small -- I'll write you a poem, on any topic you like. You can donate using any of the methods below.

Online: go to www.alredcross.org and click on the "donate now" link on the homepage

Call: 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) and you will be prompted to a menu that includes financial donations

Text: "Red Cross" to 90999. A response will include two options for donations, either to Japan or for Disasters: domestic and spring storms.

If for some reason you're unable to donate through the above means, you can get in touch with me through the site's Contact page or you can reach me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gabrielgadfly and we'll find a way to make your donation happen.

Once you've made your donation, just leave a comment on this post saying "I donated!" and tell me what you'd like a poem about. I'm just going to do this on an honor system. It may take me a few weeks to get them all done, depending on how many requests I get, but I will write your poem and post it here on the site.

Thank you.

EDIT: Great news. My friend, poet Sarah McCune, has volunteered to also write poems based on your prompts. So when you make your request, you'll get two poems from two different perspectives. I'll be posting Sarah's poems in the guest poetry section of the site.

FURTHER EDIT: Several authors have offered up free copies of their books or ebooks in exchange for donations. I've started compiling a list, which you can find here. Just a single donation lets you get any or all of the books that you want, so I hope you check it out.