I hope poetry is helping keep your April from becoming, as Eliot declares, “the cruellest month.”[1] Have you pulled down some old favorites from the bookshelf? Ventured out to a reading? We’d love to hear what you’ve been doing to celebrate National Poetry Month.
As synchronicity would have it, just today I was friended on Facebook by John D. Evans, organizer of an intriguing online event to take place this month in support of expanding the reach of National Poetry Month. With this event fifteen poets from around the world-including Saint Paul, Minnesota-will unite and discuss the need for a World Poetry Month. On April 13th and 20th from 8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. the poets will , per Evans “engage in educational, inspiring, and meaningful discussions on poetry and they will explain how poetry empowers.” All visitors can chat live in the chat-room during the show live at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Black-Author-Network. More information is available by contacting Evans directly at 877-4MY-TEPC (877-469-8372). If any of you take part in this event in any way, I would love to hear about your experience. An intriguing concept and hopefully a prosperous one.
Here at the Minnesota Humanities Center we conduct professional development workshops for educators on a wealth of topics. The goal is to strengthen their content knowledge and resources for their work in the classroom. This in mind, as I was perusing the web site of the American Academy of Poets (www.poets.org), I came across free resources for teaching poetry available to educators you should know about. The Academy makes available free poetry lesson plans and curriculum units, as well as tip sheets for teachers, with ideas and success stories from past years. All of these can be found on their For Educators page: http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/6. To all interested teachers, I encourage you to check out these free resources and comment back on their usefulness to you. The Academy itself suggests sharing any success stories you have with them, as well. Just email them at npm@poets.org and they may even post your story on their web site.
In my last post I talked briefly about how poetry parallels the humanities in how they can and should both provide a type of foundation or vantage point from which to engage our days. Be our endeavors firmly in the world of business or charity, be they filled with academic research, city planning, or physical labor; poetry, like the humanities, can help guide what we do from the realm of emotion, of intellect, and of usable common sense. Their wisdom can be rudders in the violent waters, rudders that always fit our hands and will not give out when we need them most. Former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia’s classic essay “Can Poetry Matter”[2] is an engaging look at poetry and its power and its perception in modern times. Originally published over ten years ago, it still speaks well to poetry’s place in our ever complicating society.
That said, I leave you with some lines from William Carlos Williams on pertinence.
My heart rouses
thinking to bring you news
of something
that concerns you
and concerns many men. Look at
what passes for the new.
You will not find it there but in
despised poems.
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.[3]
As we celebrate National Poetry Month, let’s ask ourselves “What can poetry offer us today?” Tell us what you come up with.
Until next week…
[1] From “The Waste Land”, Part I: The Burial of the Dead. Accessed on April 4, 2009 at http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/18993.
[2] Available on Gioia’s web site, http://www.danagioia.net/essays/ecpm.htm.
[3] From “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”. Accessed April 4, 2009 from http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/williams/1333.
