Celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day and National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month, and this year marks the 25th annual celebration of poets and poetry. This year, you can attend Poetry & the Creative Mind online and for free on April 29 at 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time for the first time. Poetry & the Creative Mind will feature actors, dancers, artists, musicians, and public figures reading favorite poetry. Register for free here.
Poem in Your Pocket Day 2021 will be on Thursday, April 29. If you are out and about on April 29, you can write down or print out a poem to carry with you throughout the day. If you’d like to get involved from home, poets.org has some great ideas for how to do so, including sharing a poem on social media using the hashtag #PocketPoem.
If you’d like more ideas for how to celebrate National Poetry Month and Poem in Your Pocket Day this year, Poets.org has amassed a collection of 30 ways to celebrate at home or online.
You can continue to celebrate poets and poetry through April and beyond by checking out poetry from Hannon Library. The selection of books below includes books that are new to Hannon Library, award winners and nominees, and books about reading poetry.
Recommended Poetry
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song edited by Kevin Young
Check it out here.
An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo
Check it out here.
Ararat by Louise Glück
Check it out here.
DMZ Colony by Don Mee Choi
Check it out here.
Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry edited by Joanne V. Gabbin and Lauren K. Alleyne; foreword by Rita Dove
Check it out here.
How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton by Lucille Clifton
Check it out here.
Post Colonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
Check it out here.
The Seven Ages by Louise Glück
Check it out here.
The Tradition by Jericho Brown
Check it out here.
A Treatise on Stars by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
Check it out here.
When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through by Joy Harjo (Editor), LeAnne Howe (Executive Associate Editor), Jennifer Elise Foerster (Associate Editor)
Books About Reading Poetry
How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry by Edward Hirsch
Check it out here.
The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them by Stephanie Burt
Check it out here.
