April is National Poetry Month!

Mark your calendars! April is National Poetry Month and it starts TOMORROW!

"National Poetry Month is the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K-12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, bloggers, and, of course, poets marking poetry’s important place in our culture and our lives."

This is the 20th anniversary of the celebration of National Poetry Month! Founded in April of 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, their goals are to...

• highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets,
• encourage the reading of poems,
• assist teachers in bringing poetry into their classrooms,
• increase the attention paid to poetry by national and local media,
• encourage increased publication and distribution of poetry books, and 
• encourage support for poets and poetry.

                   How can you participate? 

• Read a poem to someone!
• Read a book of poetry!
• Attend poetry readings during the month! 
• Sign up for Poem a Day, and receive a poem a day in your email!  
• Find poems at Poems.org and The Poetry Foundation.

AND, come by here all month long to learn about poets, poetry, listen to some poems and read some great poems too! 

Happy Poetry Month!

April is National Poetry Month, How are You Celebrating?

April is National Poetry Month

Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is held every April. Do you read poetry? I find it to be relaxing. Like having dessert without the obligation of dinner...

Former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky said, "Poetry connects us with our deep roots, our evolution as an animal that evolved rhythmic language as a means of transmitting vital information across the generations. We need the comfort and stimulation that this vital part of us gets from the ancient art."

Some of the masterpieces of poetry include Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, The Complete Poems by Emily Dickinson, North of Boston by Robert Frost, Ariel by Sylvia Plath, and The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks. More contemporary poets of note include Maya Angelou, Marie Howe, Shel Silverstein, and Billy Collins, one of my favorite contemporary poets whose tongue-in cheek poetry can always make me smile and who just published a new collection of poems called Ballistics. There are so many wonderful poets I can't even attempt to list them all here! Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Langston Hughes, E.E. Cummings and Garrison Keillor... Poetry can be serious, breathtaking, lighthearted, funny... You can pick one apart line by line, or just enjoy the images the words create...

Would you like to explore a bit of poetry? This month Knopf is sponsoring Dailylit's Poem-a-Day Collection! Read poetry from distinguished poets such as John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, and Sapphire (she wrote Push which is what the movie Precious is based on). If you sign up at Dailylit.com you will receive a poem a day in your email all through the month of April for FREE! Other places to explore for poetry are The Poetry Foundation and The Academy of Poets' site Poets.org.

Who are your favorite poets? What are your favorite poems? To celebrate National Poetry Month, here's one of my favorite poems written by Maya Angelou...

I know why the caged bird sings

by Maya Angelou

A free bird leaps on the back

Of the wind and floats downstream

Till the current ends and dips his wing

In the orange suns rays

And dares to claim the sky.

But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage

Can seldom see through his bars of rage

His wings are clipped and his feet are tied

So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill

Of things unknown but longed for still

And his tune is heard on the distant hill for

The caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze

And the trade winds soft through

The sighing trees

And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright

Lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams

His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

His wings are clipped and his feet are tied

So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with

A fearful trill of things unknown

But longed for still and his

Tune is heard on the distant hill

For the caged bird sings of freedom.