Poetry on a Pedestal

April is National Poetry Month. It’s the perfect time to celebrate poets and their versified art.

You could celebrate by hugging a poet.

Give a shout-out to a favorite poet. (Huzzah, wordsmith Mary Kimmel!)

Buy a book of poetry. Both of the following are recently published: Good Poems for Hard Times selected and introduced by Garrison Keiller and Hip-Hop Poetry and the Classics by Alan Lawrence Sitomer and Michael Cirelli.

Observe details in the world around you and discover that moments are filled with poetry.

Read a love poem to your sweetheart.

Have a conversation in rhyme. It would be a silly, fun time!

Memorize a quote about poetry. Here’s one: “All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” —William Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads, preface (1801).

Join a poetry group. Locally, there’s Gulf Coast Poets in Webster, Houston Chapter and Poets Northwest, both in Houston, to name a few. (Go to www.texaspoetryevents.info for poetry event details.)

Go to a poetry reading. Coffee Oasis in Seabrook hosts open mic readings on the first Monday of each month. Barnes and Noble in Webster hosts them every fourth Tuesday.

Read poems at a poetry open mic.

You could come to the Spring Branch Library in Katy on April 21st at 11:00 a.m. to hear me give a presentation of Poetry Through the Ages. I will conclude by sharing a rap song I wrote called “Layin’ Down My Life,” which I’ve performed in many Texas prisons. Also presenting will be multiple-award-winning poet Doris Ferguson and Sophia Morrison.

The most meaningful way to appreciate poetry, in my humble opinion, is to write a poem.

How will you celebrate?

(published April 2007)