April is National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month

Did you know April is National Poetry Month?  Well, it is come join the beatnik generation and read, write, or appreciate poems all month long.  Hopefully this will transfer to reading, writing, and appreciating poetry all year long.  According to Shelf Awareness:

The Academy of American Poets, which founded National Poetry Month in 1996, has created a new initiative called the Dear Poet Project, in conjunction with this year's theme of correspondence. Young readers and aspiring poets are encouraged to read poems written by the poets on the Academy's Board of Chancellors and respond to those poems by handwritten letter.

In addition to orchestrating the Dear Poet Project, the Academy is hosting the 11th Poetry & the Creative Mind reading at Lincoln Center on April 17 and is a partner for Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 18. The Lincoln Center event includes celebrity readers such as Mario Batali, Glen Hansard, Patricia Clarkson and Stew. An in-depth look at the Academy's many National Poetry Month resources can be found here. 

The Poetry Foundation, meanwhile, will honor National Poetry Month by giving out 50,000 free copies of the April issue of Poetry magazine. Among other things, the April issue includes "A Few More Don'ts," a follow up and homage to Ezra Pound's "A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste," originally published in 1913. The Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute will publish, in conjunction with McSweeney's, two new titles: Open the Door: How to Excite Young People About Poetry, edited by Dorothea Lasky, Dominic Luxford and Jesse Nathan, and The Strangest of Theaters: Poets Writing Across Borders, edited by Jared Hawkley, Susan Rich and Brian Turner.

Throughout April, five National Student Poets will travel to communities across the U.S. as "literary ambassadors for poetry," conducting workshops and readings to help spread interest in poetry and the written arts. A panel of jurors chose the five teenagers last year from a nationwide pool of writers from grades 9-11. The National Student Poets Program is part of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

Do you read poetry?  Are you planning to celebrate National Poetry Month?  We are writing poetry in our classroom, so over 100 students will have an opportunity to share original poems.  Check back and read some of their work.  Let us know what you are up to during National Poetry Month.

Happy Reading!
The Things You Can Read
Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!