National Poetry Month

Seems to me mostly a self-congratulation party. Our local paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, has had not one item that even mentions it -- and the Chron usually covers poetry books. Just whose party is it, I'm wondering.

Well, obviously The Academy of American Poets takes it seriously. You can sign up to receive an emailed poem a day in April, selected by one of their poets. And they initiated the Poetry Read-Athon for schools, an excellent idea to bring an otherwise neglected subject into grade school classrooms. Let's hope with some sense of fun. Their Celebrate NaPoMo section lists all the basic things poets already do -- and let's face it, who else is reading their site? All very hopeful ideas about getting poetry out into the larger culture, yet largely ineffective.

I decided to take out my resentment of the culture's ignoring of poetry by simply writing a poem a day for the month. Forget trying to do something for poetry. I'm making poetry do something for me. So far, it's working.