National Poetry Month begins tomorrow

In the U.S. and Canada, April is National Poetry Month. And now that we are all staying inside our houses as much as possible, we have more time to read (and write) poetry. You may have some poetry books on your shelves that you haven't looked at in a long time, and there are multiple poetry venues on the Internet.

You can read a new poem every day at Poetry Daily and at Verse Daily. You can also read a spiritually-themed poem every day at Amethyst Review. And be sure to check the "Things to Read' sidebar of this blog for other electronic journals I recommend.

Perhaps you've been writing some poetry or want to write poetry. During National Poetry Month, several sites offer daily prompts. They include Poetry Super Highway, Two Sylvias Press and Local Gems Press (offered in journal form, free of charge, year-round).

You can also take online poetry-writing classes. I took one many years ago and it was tremendously helpful. I had an excellent instructor and I enjoyed the community interaction. I also enjoyed having assignments because a restriction of any kind helps us to be more creative than we think we are (which is one reason I like writing formal poetry).

April 30 has been selected as this year's Poem in Your Pocket Day. Of course, we don't know whether we'll be out and about on April 30, given the coronavirus crisis. The idea, however, is to carry a poem in your pocket and share it with others. In the event that we're all still confined in our houses on that date, we can still share poems via social media, texts, email, and services such as Skype and FaceTime.

Comments