April is National Poetry Month

 

April is National Poetry Month. It is hoped that bringing this form of writing to the forefront will encourage both the reading and writing of poetry among students and adults. 

All too often, we hear comments like 'poetry? not my thing' or 'I hated memorizing poetry in school.' or 'I never could understand poetry.' On the other side are readers who make comments like 'I love the beauty of words strung together in a poem.' or 'Poetry soothes my soul.' or 'The beauty of a poem stays with me.'

Just as in prose, poems are not all lumped into one category. They come in an infinite variety. We start out with nursery rhymes that are the sing-song kind of poems children love. Grade school students are exposed to poetry in readers and children's magazines. High School students read poetry within their English classes, and if they have the right kind of teacher, may grow to enjoy it. If all they do is memorize and have the teacher interpret the poem for them as a totally different entity than what they thought they read, it's going to be a black mark against this art form for those students. 

There are wide choices in the kinds of poems we read. They range from humorous to tragic to love poems to ones about nature to short haiku or other Japanese forms. There are rhyming poems and those that do not follow a specific rhyme or rhythm. You have a whole world of poetry to choose from in your reading. There are even prose poems--ones written in paragraph form.

Many poets today publish a book of their poems, usually rather short in length and often based on a particular theme, or just a collection of poems they have written over the years. I often purchase ones published by poets I know, and I have never been disappointed. 

Writing poetry is something anyone can try. You do not have to have studied it in college or a master's program. Anyone can put words together in poetic form. I have never had any formal training in writing poetry, but I gave it a try and found I liked writing poems. Are they magnificent? No. Do they satisfy me? Yes. Have any ever been published or won a contest? Yes. Do I write complicated forms of poetry? No. 

Several members of my online writing group are poets. I have enjoyed the poems they submit for critique, and I have learned a lot by reading the critiques other writers have made. And I have critiqued many of them myself. 

We do more than enjoy reading poetry. We learn as well.

During this national celebration month, give some thought to reading and/or writing poetry. Here is one by one of my favorite poets--Emily Dickinson,