Poems for Black History Month and Valentine's Day

February 2022

February is Black History Month. To celebrate the rich tradition of Black poetry this month and year-round, browse lesson plans and the following classic and contemporary poems:

“8.” by bell hooks
“Advice to Youth” by Countee Cullen
“Frederick Douglass” by Robert Hayden
“Dream Variations” by Langston Hughes
“Making History” by Marilyn Nelson
“little prayer” by Danez Smith
“This Body II” by Renée Watson
“Imagine” by Kamilah Aisha Moon
“This Is Not a Small Voice” by Sonia Sanchez

Poems for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is around the corner—what better way to celebrate than with poetry?
Browse our selections of love poems, poems about friendship, and lesson plans for the occasion.

Monday, January 10

Monday, January 17

Monday, January 24

Monday, January 31

“Insomniami” by Ariel Francisco

“Persephone, Falling” by Rita Dove

“Like An Auto-Tune Of Authentic Love” by Carmen Giménez Smith

“Why I Write Poetry” by Leah Kindler

Prepare to celebrate Women’s History Month in March and year-round with lesson plans and poems featuring poets such as Lucille Clifton, Adrienne Rich, and Joy Harjo, among others.

Twelve contemporary poets write about Black History Month

Langston Hughes’s The Weary Blues

Every National Poetry Month we present Dear Poet, a multimedia education project that invites young people in grades five through twelve to write letters in response to poems written and read by award-winning poets, including poets who serve on the Academy of American Poets Board of Chancellors and who have received our Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowships.

The submission period for Dear Poet 2022 will open in April, 2022.

Request your free copy of the official poster in time for the April 2022 celebration of National Poetry Month.

The 2022 poster was designed by eleventh-grader Lara Lazar from Saunders Trades and Technical High School in Yonkers, New York, who was the winner of the 2022 National Poetry Month Poster Contest, and features a line by 2021 Presidential Inaugural Poet and 2017 National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman.

Respect the Mic is an expansive poetry anthology, representing twenty years of poetry from students and alumni of Chicago’s Oak Park River Forest High School Spoken Word Club. “The young poets featured in these pages hold nothing back, spilling their souls into spellbinding odes to pain, hope, and justice and delving into intensely personal subject matter.” Find more videos, resources, and reviews about the anthology, and read a selection of poems from the book.

Teachers, thank you for your work bringing poetry into the classroom year-round. We’re happy to be able to offer hundreds of free lesson plans, essays, and other resources, and we wish you and your students health and safety.

The Academy of American Poets

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New York, NY 10038

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Poems for Black History Month and Valentine's Day

Older messages

"Not Once" by Sharon Olds

Celebrate Black History Month, The Weary Blues, and more

from "Autobiography of My Alter Ego" by Yusef Komunyakaa

"February" by Tamiko Beyer

"The Crystal Gazer" by Sara Teasdale

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