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When is the last time you thought about poetry, if you think about it at all? For me it was last week, when our team swept the poetry round at trivia because my high school American lit teacher made me memorize Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death."
"Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality."
Yes, it was Dickinson. No, it was not that other guy you're talking about. Yes, I would bet my beer on it. And so it was.
T.S. Eliot called it the cruelest month, "breeding/ Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing/Memory and desire, stirring/Dull roots with spring rain." Eek. But the Academy of American Poets started calling April National Poetry Month in 1996, as a way to increase "awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States."
This year's official poster celebrates the centennial of 20th century American poet Elizabeth Bishop, who was born in February, 1911, and died in 1979. Bishop is perhaps best-known for her heartbreaking and brilliantly constructed villanelle "One Art," whose final stanza is one of the only bits of writing to leave me breathless every time I read it. Blythe Danner reads it in this video that includes an interview with Octavio Paz, who calls Bishop a "master of silence."
The Academy launches specific poetry-related projects each April. In 2009, it was the Free Verse project, where lines of poetry were written down in some form and photographed. The National Poetry Map --a directory of local poets, poems, events, literary journals, writing programs, and poetry organizations -- debuted in 2003. (The Maryland page is pretty cool, so I encourage you to check out your state's page too.)
Poem in Your Pocket day began in 2008. Thursday, April 14, is this year's day to print out a poem and take it with you wherever you go. The AAP suggests some things you can do with your pocket-sized poem, including handwriting some lines on the back of your business card, distributing bookmarks, posting a poem on your blog or Facebook page, or adding one to your email footer. These are technically things you could throughout April, too.
If what's in your pocket is usually a smartphone, you can also add the Poetry.org app, that will give you access to plenty of poems without having to print out a thing. ThePoem Flow app, specifically for the iPhone and iPod Touch, presents new daily poems, with attention paid to the layout and font for enjoyable reading and sharing with others.
Other suggestions for poetic April activities include:
- Getting out some sidewalk chalk and committing a poem to pavement.
- Sign up for a poetry class or workshop.
- Memorize a poem. I haven't done this since high school, I admit, but I can tell you that Dickinson's "Hope is the Thing With Feathers" pops into my head at the strangest, and occasionally most appropriate times, and it's a little bit of a comfort, I have to say.
- Get your hands on a Magnetic Poetry kit. I've lost mine in my many moves, but it's a conversation piece for a refrigerator or magnetic office surface. If you're truly digital, go for some ShockedPoetry.
- Support a poetry journal like, well, Poetry, or small press by buying an issue.
- Writers can pick a poem for inspiration for your own work, and photographers can draw inspiration from a poet's work to shoot an accompanying image. Words and pictures often work better together.
Just surfing the web opens doors to all sorts of poetry, both well and lesser-known.Like anything online, it requires some sifting to get to the good stuff, but it is there for your reading enjoyment and writing inspiration, if you're in a poetic mood.
One of my favorite modern poets, Jane Shore, discusses Bishop's perhaps most well-known poem, "One Art," a villanelle with the distinction of containing one of the most heartbreaking final lines I've ever read in any form.
Stacy Dillon, a school librarian writing at Welcome to my Tweendom, shares some ideas for inspiring pre-teens with poetry this month. This year, they're going to be focusing on "the whats, whens, wheres, and whys of their writing and performing lives." Bookmarked
