The month of April is National Poetry Month, and what better time than now to hop into this particular art form? There are tons of different types of poetry to learn and read, and the time is ripe to fall in love with it.

National Poetry Month was first introduced in 1996 as a way to increase people’s awareness and their appreciation of poetry in all its forms. It was founded by the Academy of American Poets and is still run by them to this day. Over the years the month has grown into quite the event. There have been postage stamps made about and for it, posters, and all kinds of other materials. Poem a Day, hosted on poets.org, sprung up out of National Poetry Month. They also provide lesson plans, and have created opportunities through the Dear Poet Project for students to read poetry aloud and have it featured on the website.

The month celebrates enjoying poems all kinds of different ways. It pushes the reading and writing of poetry, and sharing it with friends and family. In celebration of all that, the staff and student assistants at ECL have come together to share some of their poetry in a number of different forms! We hope that you’ll find some enjoyment out of our works, and if you would like to get in on the fun, leave a comment with your own poetry written this month!

Staff and Student Assistant Poetry

Alone and Together-

Quiet of my house

It haunts my soul and my heart

The nothing loves me

The comfort of noise

The walls separate us now

Yet we aren’t alone

Quiet of my house

A melody of its own

Sung by the unseen

– Julsaint Sisters

Through the maze I browse

Books and lighted nooks and stairs

Yellow submarine

– Betty Monterroso

Bands of light across the plate:

through the wires

paper to bytes to digest

– Peter Kaiser

Students rapt in thought:

Only the chewing of ice

Disturbs their silence

Ants are on the march

Invading student spaces.

Who’s grass is greener?

– Bobby Griffith

The Quiet Library

A haven from the hurly-burly,

The Eagle Commons feels like home

To refugees from Willis. Surely

A haven from the hurly-burly

Beckons them over. Prematurely

Wearied by chatter, here they roam

A haven from the hurly-burly.

The Eagle Commons feels like home!

– Bobby Griffith

– Erica Kaufman

– Matina Newsom

Digital Resources and Inspiration

In addition to the poetry we’ve shared, below the poetry you’ll find a number of UNT Library and National Poetry Month resources listed to help you learn more about poetry, discover some new collections, and find other ways to celebrate this month!

Poetry Collections

LGBTQ fiction and poetry from Appalachia Edited by Jeff Mann & Julia Watts

Modern Sudanese poetry: an anthology Translated and edited by Adil Babikir

Wholesome Whole Poetry by J. Eileen

She’s not into poetry: mini-comics 1991-1996 by Tom Hart

Twentieth-century Russian poetry: reinventing the canon Edited by Katharine Hodgson, Joanne Shelton and Aexandra Smith

The complete poetry of Aime Cesaire Translated by A. James Arnold and Clayton Eshleman

John Donne and contemporary poetry: essays and poems Judith Scherer Herz, editor

The poetry of Weldon Kees: vanishing as presence John T. Irwin

About Poetry

Poetry: a very short introduction By Bernard O’Donoghue

Poetry: the basics By Jeffrey Wainwright

Pitch of poetry By Charles Bernstein

Using poetry to promote talking and healing By Pooky Knightsmith

Poetry and theology in the modernist period By Anthony Domestico

Basics of Hebrew poetry: theory and practice By Samuel T. S. Goh; foreword by Tremper Longman III

Poetry in Government Documents

Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature: a checklist- Library of Congress — General Reference and Bibliography Division

Poetry’s “catbird seat” at 60: a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the consultants in poetry in the and the poets laureate: a reading in the great hall of the Library of Congress– Library of Congress — Poetry Office

The imagination in the modern world Three lectures presented under the auspices of the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund by Stephen Spender

The battle line of democracy: prose and poetry of the world war, Published by the Committee on Public Information, George Creel, chairman United States — Committee on Public Information, Franklin K. Lane, and Guy Stanton

100 love sonnets = cien sonetos de amor By Pablo Neruda; translated by Stephen Tapscott

Sixty American poets, 1896-1944 Selected by Allen Tate

Other Resources

20th Century American Poetry

20th Century English Poetry

Poetry in America video Series

30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month From Home

Poems Hosted by National Poetry Month

Poem A Day

One Response to “Get Creative with Poetry”

  1. EDWARD MYCUE

    I graduated magna cum laude January 1959 here is a poem of a few days ago. Oh, I also during a graduate hear taught 2 courses two semesters Spring and Fall of that year in the Government Department beginning and required courses in federal and state & local government. Following that in early 1960 I was a census taker in Dallas where I had gone to grade (Our Lady Of Perpetual Help) and High schools (N.R. Crozier Tech). I was born 1937 in Niagara Falls, N.Y. and with my 6 brothers and sisters (David, Peter, Marguerite, Agnes, Jane, Gerarda) sand parents John and Ruth Mycue at age eleven moved to Dallas, Texas. My father “Jack” sold brake linings and clutch facings to jobbers & wholesalers over the five SW States- Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, & Texas. I went for further study up to Boston University Graduate School for Public Relations and Communications and as a Lowell Institute for Cooperative Broadcasting Fellow an intern at WGBH-TV the hub station (prior to PBS) OF NET, New England Educational Television. Then the next year went into the Peace Corps as a teacher in Ghana, the first group into the field.
    Writing from early adolescence I’ve continued writing & publishing mostly poetry since. Here is my poem from two days past:
    COVID19–AN ODE, THE SHORT VERSION
    A vicious piece of shit in the nation’s curry,
    quick as an angel of death.
    I am a lip reader.
    He is pathetic, knows nothing about love.
    He is frozen, not rancid.
    Just a bit on the turn.
    He won’t get up and walk.
    What happened?
    Crazy.
    You just need to show a light in his eyes.
    45 does devil’s work with Corvid19.

    © Copyright Edward Mycue 9pm Wednesday April 8, 2020

    Reply

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