April is National Poetry Month

"Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words." ~  Edgar Allan Poe

April is National Poetry Month.

The Academy of American Poets introduced the first National Poetry Month in April of 1996 as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States. Since then, the celebration of poetry has grown and now includes both Canada and Great Britain. Each year, publishers, booksellers, educators, literary organizations and bloggers (like me) use April to promote poetry.

Organizers encourage writing a poem a day in celebration. Though many schools incorporate this into their lesson plans and some individuals are even brave enough to do it, I'll not be quite so ambitious. Do expect at least a few poems from me (good or bad) sometime in April. Nothing on the scale of the Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn Seasonal Sonnet Series from a few years back because frankly I'm not quite sure where that inspiration came from (I couldn't even write a sonnet for an college assignment). But something interesting and poetic is sure to arise at some point.

You don't have to be a poet to enjoy what the month has to offer. Check out 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month. People who would like to be on the receiving end of a Poem a Day can sign up for the e-mail list at Poets.org. Poem Flow for iPhones, available through the iTunes store, features daily poems presented as both fixed and animated text. The truly poetic at heart can even search the National Map for events happening near them this month.

On a related note, there is still time for St. Paul residents to submit entries to have their poems published on city sidewalks. The Fourth Annual Saint Paul Sidewalk Poetry Contest ends April 17 at midnight.

My other previous attempts at poetry, for better or worse and some of which I had forgotten I'd even written:

Forgotten Roses
Under Your Skin
Into the Darkness
In Memory of Ian Talty
Summer on the Prairie

Don't forget my ever-present Haiku News Series.