Poem-a-Day - Join us for the Blaney Lecture

March 21, 2023

Spring Equinox

“Near the End of April” by William Stanley Braithwaite
“Cherry blossoms” by Toi Derricotte
“When the Green Lies over the Earth” by Angelina Weld Grimké
“Easter” by Emily Pauline Johnson
“Black Petal” by Li-Young Lee
“Spring in New Hampshire” by Claude McKay
“A Spring Dirge” by Ameen Rihani
“Grace Among the Ferns” by Analicia Sotelo
“For the Bird Singing before Dawn” by Kim Stafford
“Spring Morning” by Marion Strobel
“[Has Spring passed away?]” by Jitō Tennō
“Spring and All” by William Carlos Williams

This Thursday, March 23, at 4 p.m. PST / 7 p.m. EST, Academy Chancellor Patricia Smith will deliver the 2023 Blaney Lecture, “The Scrawny Little Black Girl with the Hasty Pigtails Sounds Out ‘Anemone.’” This virtual event is free to attend with registration. ASL interpretation will be provided. A Q&A session will follow the lecture.

The Blaney Lecture was created in memory of former Academy of American Poets Board member Dr. Dorothy Gulbenkian Blaney, past president of Cedar Crest College and champion of women and education, by a gift from her estate.

Read more about Smith, including poems, on Poets.org:

“The Sun, Mad Envious, Just Wants the Moon”
“Now He’s an Etching”
“Incendiary Art”
“Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah”

more at poets.org

Add event to calendar:

“In some ways, this poem is celebrating the wingspan of grief and how it traverses family, generations, and memory.”

Read Victoria Chang’s reflection on grief and “There, There, Grieving” by Zeina Hashem Beck, as part of the Poetry Coalition’s programming and seventh annual theme, “and so much lost you’d think / beauty had left a lesson: Poetry & Grief.”

more at poets.org

“Poets are the means by which a place comes to know itself, giving voice to shared experiences.”

Read an interview with Ray McNiece, 2022 Poet Laureate Fellow in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, on his project and addressing generational gaps through poetry.

“Winter Solstice”
“Haiku”

more at poets.org

Join us in congratulating Richard Blanco, Education Ambassador of the Academy of American Poets, on being one of twelve recipients of a 2021 National Humanities Medal. The honor, presented by President Joe Biden, celebrates an “individual or organization whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the human experience.” Read more about Blanco, including poems.

more at poets.org

Poetry & the Creative Mind, our signature National Poetry Month celebration and benefit reading, will return to the virtual stage as a free, livestreamed event on Wednesday, April 26, 2023, at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

With readings of favorite poems by luminaries from across the arts and culture, the broadcast celebrates the important role poetry plays in the lives of readers. Join Ethan Hawke, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, Jonathan Majors, Shantell Martin, Liam Neeson, Molly Shannon, Nobel Peace Prize–winner Malala Yousafzai, and more, for this singular virtual event hosted by Masters of Ceremony Richard Blanco and Kimiko Hahn.

learn more & register free

Registration is free for all attendees. Your gift during registration supports the Academy of American Poets’ programs and publications, including free resources for educators during National Poetry Month and throughout the year.

Watch Keetje Kuipers read Minnie Bruce Pratt’s “Justice, Come Down.” This is the sixth film in Above Strands of Earth: Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation at Tippet Rise, a film series produced in collaboration with Tippet Rise Art Center and the Academy of American Poets. Directed by Matthew Thompson and shot at Tippet Rise Art Center. Learn more at https://www.brinkerhoffpoetry.org.

#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week

Check out our #PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week: a reading for Mary-Alice Daniel’s debut poetry collection, Mass for Shut-Ins, winner of the 2022 Yale Series of Younger Poets award, featuring Poet Laureate Fellow Airea D. Matthews and Desiree C. Bailey, with discussion moderated by Safiya Sinclair. Saturday, March 25, at 6:30 p.m. EDT at P&T Knitwear Books & Podcasts (180 Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002) Register here.

more at poets.org

“I was interested in influence, but also in particularity of voice.”

Read and listen to our Poem-a-Day interview with Diane Seuss, author of frank: sonnets (Graywolf Press, 2021), winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Read and listen to Seuss discuss the Poem-a-Day curatorial approach and more on Poets.org.

more at poets.org

Request your free copy of the official National Poetry Month poster in time for the April 2023 celebration!

The 2023 poster was designed by Marc Brown, creator of the popular Arthur series. The artwork incorporates an excerpted line from the poem “The Carrying” by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón.

more at poets.org

Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po) is seeking a part-time fundraising and development coordinator.
White Whale Bookstore in Pittsburgh is seeking a full-time events coordinator. Send a cover letter and resume to tay@whitewhalebookstore.com with “events manager” in the subject line.

Revisit last week’s Poem-a-Day selections with us on Poets.org:

March 12: “[Like a white stone]” by Anna Akhmatova
March 13: “A Lesson from my Father about Electricity” by Monica Rico
March 14: “Ode to Black Air Forces” by Bryan Byrdlong
March 15: “Sissy” by Aaron Smith
March 16: “Lamb” by Richie Hofmann
March 17: “Palm Springs” by Christian Gullette
March 18: “Prisms” by Laura Riding Jackson

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Poem-a-Day - Join us for the Blaney Lecture

Older messages

"Holocene Sonnet" by Lisa Fay Coutley

"Description of Symptoms" by Allison Benis White

"Rain Fugue" by Jessie Redmon Fauset

"Prisms" by Laura Riding Jackson

"Palm Springs" by Christian Gullette

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