National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month is throughout April.

National Poetry Month is throughout April.

Monica Brewer

by Monica Brewer

Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare.  What do all of these people have in common?  It’s not that they’re dead or part of your required writing for English.  I’m talking about them all being famous poets.  Yep, it’s that time again for National Poetry Month.

According to Poets.org, National Poetry Month is a time to celebrate poetry that was written by great poets.  NPM was established by the Academy of American Poets in 1996.  Inspired by Black History Month, which is in February, and Women History Month, which is in March, National Poetry Month is that time of the year when people turn their attention to poetry and would likely want to participate.  Meaning, that this is around the time where English teachers incorporate Shakespearean Literature in their classes.  Other than Shakespeare, there’s other poets you could check out.

On FamousPoetsandPoems.com, people can find poets that they don’t know about. Other than writing Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl apparently has a knack for poetry.  Some of his poems include “Mike Teevee…”  and “The Pig.”  The first poem is about the symptoms of being like Mike Teevee from his book and the second one is about a guy getting paranoid over a very smart pig.  Another common poet that we read when we are young is Shel Silverstein.  Silverstein has had success with his books “Lights in the Attic,” “Falling Up,” and “Where the Sidewalk Ends.”  On the TheWhyNot.Blogspot page, it includes 46 great poems from his works.  Some great ones to read include “Something’s Missing,” “Monsters I’ve Met,” and “Colors.”

If you don’t write your own in your spare time (like I do), there’s some great sites you can generate your own poems.  On Thinkzone, you can make your own poems by either using the predetermined list of words or type your own list to use.  Poemofquotes is another great poetry generator.  You just insert a list of words and then it generates a poem.  If you want a funny way of doing poems, Time.com includes a poem generator using words out of Jaden and Willow Smith’s mouths during an interview.  I recommend trying it because it’s funny to see all of the options.  One last one you could try is on Languageisavirus.com.  All you have to do is press the generator button to get some poems.

How do you celebrate this appreciation month? Poets.org has a list of 30 things you could do this month, one for everyday.   This is a great time of the month to help reach our school’s goal of half a million pages or minutes.  It’s for a good cause.  If you have some spare time during April, grab a sheet of paper or open a new Google document and write some great poetry.  Keep it and see how much poetry can you do in a month.  Poetry can be beautiful and can be meaningful to you.  You just have to find your source of inspiration.

When thinking of poems, don’t sit there and cry,

because you never know unless you try.