April is Poetry Month

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Oh poetry! How I love it and hate it and love to hate it and hate to love it. Once upon a time I was enamoured with it. A trip to the library meant that a book of poetry was coming home with me. Like most preadolescent girls I had my little notebook full of poetry with a sassymonkey byline (blessedly this got lost or destroyed somewhere along the line...). And then one day we started a poetry section in English class and it killed my poetry love stone dead. Suddenly I had to dissect. I had to rip apart the beautiful flowing language and find meaning in it. Poetry suddenly wasn't just the lovely words that rolled around in my mouth like candy. It was work. It was painful. Sure, I've learned to appreciate poetry. But always in the back of my mind are the voices of my various English teachers "Where's the symbolism, sassymonkey? THINK!" I've clearly never quite recovered from it. But I'm starting to see the beauty in it again.

You see, awhile ago some bloggers started something called Poetry Thursday. With bloggers everywhere promoting poetry how could it not start to poke at my head. Then a few days ago I stumbled upon the Poetry Free For All where they are celebrating NaPoWriMo 2007 (National Poetry Writing Month). One poem a day for the month of April. How exciting! How intriguing! (And if you are like me and haven't written poetry in years, how scary!)

So for April I'm pledging to start appreciating poetry again. For myself. Not to go looking for deeper meaning. I'm going to sit in my living room and read poetry out loud. I'm going to let the words roll around in my mouth like a peppermint. I may even go to a *gasp* poetry evening at a local watering hole.

Want to join me and rediscover poetry this month? Here are some links to get you started:

Poets.org: Poetry and for those of you looking for deeper meaning they also have essays about poetry.
Poetry Foundation: Poetry, a blog, podcasts - it has it all.
Bolts of Silk: A poetry blog.
Canadian Poetry Archive:Poems from some of Canada's best.
Every Poet: Check out their archive for goodies from Browning, Blake, Dickinson, and of course, Shakespeare (I have a soft spot for his sonnets).
Tinywords: For the Haiku lovers, "fresh haiku, delivered daily".

Contributing Editor Sassymonkey also blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

sassymonkey 6 pts

Great poetry resources everyone!

I tried really hard to find some audio of a poem I really liked but it doesn't seem to be found anywhere in the vast world of the internets. *grumble*

Sassymonkey ( http://sassymonkey.ca/ ) and Sassymonkey Reads ( http://sassymonkeyreads.wordpress.com/ ).

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Kay B. Day 5 pts

What a great post. Glad you're rediscovering poetry.

This line is a poet's line: I'm going to let the words roll around in my mouth like a peppermint.

I enjoyed reading your words.

Best, Kay B. Day
Jacksonville, FL

Lia Hadley 5 pts

Thank you and your commentators for suggesting new poetry sites. If you want to give yourself a daily gift of poetry this fine springtime April, take a browse here ( http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do )â€¦ This poetry site is such a rare and rich gift to explore. There is something magical about hearing poetry read by authors and reading the words as well: a double scoop ice cream sunday delight.

Take this poem ( http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singleP... ) for example; who would have thought that such treasures could be found on a garbage dump and that digging around the site is an act of rebellion?

lia from luebeck, germany

Author of the media safe 101 ( http://rtb03mediasafe.blogspot.com/ ) page on the Red Tent Blog ( http://virtualredtent.blogspot.com ) and the personal yum yum cafe ( http://yumyumcafe.blogspot.com/ )

Nordette Adams 6 pts

And since this post at The Star Ledger's website mentions me, I thought I'd mention it to you: A Little Poetry ( http://blog.nj.com/jerseyblogs/2007/04/a_little_po... ).

"Love is liquid. Brew and be drunkards!" ~~Nordette ( http://jerseygoddess.blogspot.com/2007/04/april-is... ) And here's a link to the blog ( http://jerseygoddess.blogspot.com/ ).