National Poetry Month, established by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 begins tomorrow! This month-long celebration of poetry is held every April “to widen the attention of individuals and the media to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our complex poetic heritage, and to poetry books and journals of wide aesthetic range and concern.” During April, poets, poetry lovers, publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, and schools throughout the US celebrate poetry. One of the challenges of NPM is to read and/or write a poem every day. So ... in the spirit of the observance, I offer you an inspiration word or phrase and a related poem for each of April’s thirty days. You may wish to read, write, or do both. Keep in mind that writing a poem a day doesn’t mean that you have to “finish” each poem immediately. You can write a draft each day and set your drafts aside to work on later. As always, your posts are welcome!
Regular weekly posts will resume on April 28th for the first week of May.
In the meantime, I wish you a happy and poetry-filled National Poetry Month!
April 1 – April Rain
“April Rain Song” by Langston Hughes
April 2 – Waking
“Why I Wake Early” by Mary Oliver
April 3 – Parents
“Parents’” by William Meredith
April 4 – Spring
Spring is like a perhaps hand by e.e. cummings
April 5 – Memory
“My Earliest Memory” by Ray Gonzalez
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2011/12/25
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2011/12/25
April 6 – Change
The Moment I Knew My Life Had Changed by Maria Mazziotti Gillan
April 7 – Footsteps
“Footsteps” by Fanny Howe
April 8 – Easter
“To Him That Was Crucified” By Walt Whitman
April 9 –Magic
“Magic” by Louis Untermeyer
April 10 – Time
“In Time” by W. S. Merwin
April 11 – Motion
“Motion” by Octavio Paz
April 12 – Ego
“Ego” by Denise Duhamel
April 13 – Silence
“The Silence” by Philip Schultz
April 14 – Light
“The Secret of Light” by James Wright
April 15 –Dawn
“Dawn” by Robert Bly
April 16 – Love
“Salvation” by Rumi
April 17 –Words
“Words” by Anne Sexton
April 18 – Self-Portrait
“Self-Portrait” by Adam Zagajewski
“Lost” by David Wagoner
April 20 – Food
“Linguini” by Diane Lockward
April 21 – Morning
“Morning at the Elizabeth Arch” by Joe Weil
April 22 – Grace
“Grace’ by Linda Pastan
April 23 – Animals
“The Heaven of Animals” by James Dickey
April 24 – Wildlife
“The Bear” by Galway Kinnell
http://staff.psc.edu/schneide/Kinnell-TheBear.html
April 25 – Lightning
Blogaversary! Today (April 24th) is this blog's second birthday! My sincerest thanks to all of you who have visited, joined, commented, and shared poetry here!
April 25 – Lightning
“Lightning” by Mary Oliver
April 26 – Dreams
“It Was a Dream” by Lucille Clifton
April 27 – Promises
“A Deep Sworn Vow” by William Butler Yeats
April 28 – Landscapes
“Landscape at the End of the Century” by Stephen Dunn
April 29 – Birds
“Waxwings” by Robert Francis
April 30 – Peace
“Wildpeace” by Yehhuda Amichai
"One demands two things of a poem. Firstly, it must be a well-made verbal object that does honor to the language in which it is written. Secondly, it must say something significant about a reality common to us all, but perceived from a unique perspective.
What the poet says has never been said before, but,
once he has said it, his readers recognize its validity for themselves."
What the poet says has never been said before, but,
once he has said it, his readers recognize its validity for themselves."
– W. H. Auden
