National Poetry Month

national poetry month

As you may be aware, April is recognized as National Poetry Month and also, Gardening Month. (Two of my favorite things, if you’re keeping count.)

In an effort to reclaim a bit of my life from busyness and encouraged by the reminder of National Poetry Month (#npm), I have been reading poems aloud to my 2 year-old, usually over breakfast. He digs it; I dig it. This is the beginning of a beautiful little tradition for us.

Poetry may not officially be as ubiquitous as it once was, but I don’t buy into the idea that technology or the internet is killing it. Our days are full of poetry, whether we note it or not. We live it; we write it; we read it. Poetry is in our Facebook and Twitter feeds, flitters through our Instagram, and is in our text threads. And of course it’s in the music we listen to, with the exception of pop radio (#lyricssnob). Social media isn’t just meaningless nothings drifting around the web and it isn’t all about the business side of things, either. Not everything written on social media or a blog is poetry, but I see poetic expressions of life all the time. Social media–not unlike poetry–is essentially about connection. Some of us prefer one medium to another, and so poets, like all creatures, must adapt.Continue reading