Thanks to my friend sharon, who posted a heads-up to the Mary Chapin Carpenter list regarding the first national Poem in Your Pocket Day - I use Poets.org quite often as a resource for my blog, as well as The Writer's Almanac and Panhala.
Poetry has always been a major personal weakness of mine - how lovely to see an extended widening of the circle to encourage "read[ing] a poem, anytime, anywhere - whether to fill a spare moment, woo a darling, toast a friend, find solace, or recall a few favorite lines".
The idea is simple: select a poem you love during National Poetry Month then carry it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends on April 17.
Poems from pockets will be unfolded throughout the day with events in parks, libraries, schools, workplaces, and bookstores. Create your own Poem In Your Pocket Day event using ideas below or let us know how you will celebrate Poem In Your Pocket Day by emailing npm@poets.org.
In this age of mechanical and digital reproduction, it's easy to carry a poem, share a poem, or start your own PIYP day event. Here are some ideas of how you might get involved:
~ Start a "poems for pockets" give-a-way in your school or workplace
~ Urge local businesses to offer discounts for those carrying poems
~ Post pocket-sized verses in public places
~ Handwrite some lines on the back of your business cards
~ Start a street team to pass out poems in your community
~ Distribute bookmarks with your favorite immortal lines
~ Add a poem to your email footer
~ Post a poem on your blog or social networking page
~ Project a poem on a wall, inside or out
~ Text a poem to friends
~ Urge local businesses to offer discounts for those carrying poems
~ Post pocket-sized verses in public places
~ Handwrite some lines on the back of your business cards
~ Start a street team to pass out poems in your community
~ Distribute bookmarks with your favorite immortal lines
~ Add a poem to your email footer
~ Post a poem on your blog or social networking page
~ Project a poem on a wall, inside or out
~ Text a poem to friends
Along with your library, bookstore, or shelf at home, you can find the perfect poem for your pocket by browsing Poets.org, or by signing up to receive a poem from new spring poetry titles each day during April. Download pocket-sized Poem PDFs to print and share.
Poem In Your Pocket Day has been celebrated each April in New York City since 2002. Each year, city parks, bookstores, workplaces, and other venues burst with open readings of poems from pockets. Even the Mayor gets in on the festivities, reading a poem on the radio. For more information on New York City’s celebration, visit nyc.gov/poem.
Poem In Your Pocket Day has been celebrated each April in New York City since 2002. Each year, city parks, bookstores, workplaces, and other venues burst with open readings of poems from pockets. Even the Mayor gets in on the festivities, reading a poem on the radio. For more information on New York City’s celebration, visit nyc.gov/poem.
Poems have been stowed in pockets in a variety of ways, from the commonplace books of the Renaissance to the pocket-sized publications for Army soldiers in World War II. Have a story about the marriage of the poem and the pocket? Send them to npm@poets.org.
BOOK: Wonderful Words: Poems About Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening by Lee Bennett Hopkins (Compiler), Karen Barbour (Illustrator)
POEM: How To Eat a Poem by Eve Merriam
POEM: How To Eat a Poem by Eve Merriam
Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that
may run down your chin.
may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.
You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth.
For there is no core
or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.
QUOTE(S): "I would define poetry as the rhythmical creation of beauty." ~ Edgar Allen Poe
"Poetry ennobles the heart and the eyes, and unveils the meaning of all things upon which the heart and the eyes dwell. It discovers the secret rays of the universe, and restores to us forgotten paradises." ~ Edith Sitwell
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