Poem-a-Day - Happy National Poetry Month

April 4, 2023

Celebrating April

Reflect on the beginning of a new month with a few poets born in April:

“Alone” by Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928)
“Anything Can Happen” by Seamus Heaney (April 13, 1939)
“Haiku 2” by Etheridge Knight (April 19, 1931)
“The Red Poppy” by Louise Glück (April 22, 1943)
“Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly? (Sonnet 8)” by William Shakespeare (April 23, 1564)
“Flying at Night” by Ted Kooser (April 25, 1939)
“What Comes” by Carolyn Forché (April 28, 1950)
“Since Nine O’Clock” by C. P. Cavafy (April 29, 1863)
“The Body Remembers” by Yusef Komunyakaa (April 29, 1947)

April marks the twenty-seventh annual #NationalPoetryMonth, an occasion established by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 to celebrate the integral role that poets and poetry have in our culture. Visit Poets.org/npm for free activities, programs, and resources to celebrate with us throughout April and beyond!

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“I wanted them to feel like they were vibrating. I think of April as an alive month, when we come back to life in some ways. And so I wanted these poems to perform a little resurrection, I think.”

Read and listen to a Q&A with U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, author of several books, including The Hurting Kind (Milkweed Editions, 2022) and Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions, 2015), finalist for the National Book Award. Read more about her Poem-a-Day curatorial approach and more on Poets.org.

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“This mash-up of emotions presents as an address to a lover who already feels absent, and unfolds (unravels) without punctuation, and yet, with marked restraint.”

Read Andrea Cohen’s reflection on grief and “Les Cloches” (“The Bells”) by Guillaume Apollinaire, 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.”

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“Reading and writing poetry are exercises in empathy-building: reading poems allows us to enter into someone else’s life and fears and joys, and writing poems is a way to externalize our own inner lives.”

Read an interview with Catherine Pierce, 2022 Poet Laureate Fellow in Mississippi, on her project and youth poetry.

“How Becoming a Mother is Like Space Travel”
“Anthropocene Pastoral”
“Gestational Size Equivalency Chart”

Happy publication day to Kweku Abimbola’s Saltwater Demands a Psalm (Graywolf Press, 2023), which was selected by Pulitzer Prize winner Tyehimba Jess to receive the 2022 First Book Award from the Academy of American Poets. Read poems by Abimbola and purchase a copy of his debut collection.

“I. Kwasiada”
“V. Wukuada”

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, 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 Peter Halstead read “Pine Wind.” This is the tenth 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

Watch Ruth Stone’s Vast Library of the Female Mind, a poignant new documentary about poet Ruth Stone’s transformative journey from grief to poetic brilliance. The film will be available online from April 2 to April 9, with a free Q&A with director Nora Jacobson on Thursday, April 6, at 7 p.m. EDT. Purchase tickets to the film here. (Sponsored)

Academy of American Poets members get free access to view the film. To receive the special-access link, members can email membership@poets.org.

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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.

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Community Bookstore in Brooklyn, New York, is seeking an experienced bookseller. To apply, email jobs@communitybookstore.net.
The University of Memphis in Tennessee is seeking two full-time assistant professor of teaching positions in the English department.

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

March 26: “Our Casuarina Tree” by Toru Dutt
March 27: “Ubi Sunt” by Virginia Konchan
March 28: “Mouth” by Dana Roeser
March 29: “Horse” by Lisa Olstein
March 30: “On Moving” by Jane Huffman
March 31: “anti poetica” by Danez Smith
April 1: “[When night draws on, remembering keeps me wakeful]” by al-Khansāʾ