Celebrating Poetry, All Month Long
In honor of National Poetry Month, here’s a dose of poetry from bloggers across WordPress.com.
April is National Poetry Month, and we love each day’s flurry of new posts tagged #nationalpoetrymonth in the WordPress.com Reader and across the internet. WordPressers are busy in the #napowrimo tag as well, participating in NaPoWriMo, Maureen Thorson’s annual project that encourages and challenges poets to write a poem a day in April.
Let’s look at some poetry we’ve stumbled upon recently across the WordPress.com community.
“Me as a Child” series, Silver Birch Press
We’re enjoying the Me as a Child series at Silver Birch Press — poems on childhood by various poets. Consider this excerpt from “Swarm” by Alan King:
She was a sixth grader, who mistook my lamppost legs and power line arms for a fifth grader. She was as old as the boys throwing grass in each other’s hair, rolling around in a kind of awkward tango towards manhood.
“I Allow Myself Poetry,” Summer Pierre
Poetry is the largest influence on the comics of Summer Pierre, a cartoonist and illustrator in New York. In “I Allow Myself Poetry,” she illustrates her world, where poetry and comics meet.
I guess this is where poetry and comics meet so clearly — neither art form will most likely pay the bills, but they both go along way to keep on the lights.
Daily poetic musings, Optional Poetry
C., the blogger at Optional Poetry, is using April as a time for experimentation. Here’s a snippet of a poem from the first day of NaPoWriMo:
Today again I paid to learn, watching refugees sit and wait for their bus, and asked the doctor what the term really means— she couldn’t say exact qualifications, just that for some recognized reason, a person had to leave their homeland.
Astropoetry and art, Tychogirl
Tychogirl focuses on poetry about astronomy, uses found materials, and publishes mixed media art. Exploring the blog is like hunting for treasures.
“Wave,” Tychogirl
Poems, Dry-Humping Parnassus
Just dive into Robin Lucas’ poetry category — you won’t be sorry. The Southern California-based poet and writer’s work is unexpected and moreish; here’s a sampling from “Red Flag Waving”:
This verse is not free, and this poem is no poem— it’s a red flag waving at death, at the comical futility of the poet’s every utterance be it rational or absurd, sublime or grotesque; its rhythm is neither tranquil nor its inspiration divine.
A Poet to Her Son, Words and Other Things
Nicole Marie at Words and Other Things spends her time penning short fiction and poems and is the assistant poetry editor at Philadelphia Stories. Her recent poem on pregnancy and motherhood, “A Poet to Her Son,” is a community favorite. Here’s a sample:
and you -- you are practicing self defense beneath my flesh; to you, the only world there is.
Spine poetry, Stan Carey
Writer and editor Stan Carey publishes book spine poetry under his “bookmash” tag. We love his latest offering, “After the fire,” in which he finds inspiration in Jared Diamond, David Sedaris, and more:
Red gold Beyond black, Incendiary collapse When you are engulfed in flames: A bright red scream From out of the city, After the fire A still small Voice.
Spine poem by Stan Carey
Poetry from Ireland, Poethead
Christine Murray compiles poetry from Irish and women poets on her site, Poethead. In a post celebrating International Women’s Day, she gathers work from a number of poets, including Nessa O’Mahony and Shirley McClure. Here’s a bit from McClure’s poem, “Mastectomy”:
and on these fine mornings
let me tell you
it is good to know
that there are two
Where nature meets poetry, Leaf and Twig
At Leaf and Twig, Catherine Arcolio explores the intersection between nature, photography, and poetry and celebrates the natural world with photo posts and succinct poetic musings. She looks forward to spring in “Resurrection,” her post from April 1:
the ground begins to make itself known again
Blackout poetry, Ochwoman to the Rescue
We’ve spotted some great newspaper blackout poetry, which is created by blacking out lines and words in a newspaper piece using a permanent marker. Here’s a poem called “Memoirs of a Teacher (Day 1)” from a seventh grade English teacher:
I have not yet taught Albert Einstein or President of the United States, but I strive for a great foundation, grand schemes of profound comments and creations, comfort, constant learning.
Want more? Dive into the #nationalpoetrymonth and #napowrimo tags, or explore the poetry tag in the Reader.
WordPress.com News 
I love poetry. It’s my personal escape into a world where no one can judge me, but come to understand me better. I love the poems posted here.
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That’s wonderfully put! I feel similar — when I read or (try to) compose a poem — I definitely enter a deep, intimate space in which anything goes and anything can be expressed or interpreted — thoughts, ideas, dreams, fears. Thanks for the lovely insight.
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My pleasure.
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Good selection!
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Love the poems! Definitely will be taking part in #nationalpoetrymonth. 🙂
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creative way of showing the new way of poetry 🙂
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Oh. I wish I’d known about this sooner. I fell in love with writing poetry after Writing 201: Poetry here. I would have joined this had I known it earlier. 😦
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You can still join in — I don’t think there’s a rule saying you have to start on April 1st!
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I wish I could, but I’m already doing Writing 101, NaBloPoMo, another online class, AND a daily full time job all at the same time. Maybe I’ll just try next month, if there is one. 😦
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These are beautiful poems. I enjoy reading poems and I love writing them. They give me a voice to express my true feelings any time I am tongue tied.
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I just discovered it is NaPoWriMo… I am on catch up!
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Some very nice selections. Thanks for posting them.
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I have been having a lot of fun participating in NaBloPoMo.
I think this is my third year participating.
Some days, I post early in the morning, and some, like tonight, after 10PM, but I AM enjoying the challenge and the thrill.
And to all of my fellow bloggers participating, I quote from a magnet I have on a bookcase I use as a hutch on my round table (a work space), “Keep calm and write on!”
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I am celebrating NPM with a different poem everyday–a mixture of classic and contemporary with a pithy reflection thrown in. Don’t forget Poem In Your Pocket day on April 30th!
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Painting with pens ! Seeing with your ears ! Woweeee 🙂
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Am loving the muse that I got from this article definitely will save it for later. 😊
PS: I join Napowrimo and get a lot of knowledge from the project, everyone should join too!
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Very Nice. I enjoy reading poems. Good selection.
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All these picks are great. 🙂
I am also participating, just one day behind and have written 7 poems so far. I am loving this challenge.
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I love poetry. it is so good… since we’ve tackled it in our class, I started to love it. Btw, I love the poems that are posted.
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Thanks for the inspiration! I love the creativity collected here. My book club is discussing poetry (reader’s choice) at our meeting this month in honor of Poetry Month. I’ve always loved poetry, so hardly know where to begin in my bit of sharing. However, I’ve printed out several of these because they’re so clever in both content and technique.
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Poetry, poetry, the language of the court, the language of the serfs….we all speak poetry, we all live poetry…but a few have the guts and humility to seek those feelings, thoughts, ideas and put them in magical words on a page, a keyboard, an easel….poetry feeds the mind, and the mind creates more poetry.
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I love the phrase you chose to highlight!
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Love the poems mentioned. Really.
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Great selection of poems. On my blog I’ve enjoyed recalling an inspiring poem: “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?” You can read the rest of it at alittlebitlikeme.com
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Love the poems. Poetry is such a beautiful art form.
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some creative ways to construct poetry, I especially like the book spine poetry and newspaper blackout poetry. It really embodies what poetry is all about, not just through words but how it is constructed and the layers beneath it.
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I love poetry too, and have been writing since I was in senior high – am now married with two gorgeous kids, and still writing, I have a blog about my prayer ministry, but wonder how I can incorporate both – Any ideas, how I can share my poetry?
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You could create a second blog dedicated to your poetry, as it sounds like these two interests are separate and there’s not much overlapping between the two?
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@Cheri thanks for the insight, will do.
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Enjoyed reading the excerpts of these lovely poems.
Like Bolton, I too feel I have major interest in poetry but as you can see, in my blog, it’s all mixed up right now. Probably I’ve already written many poems on my blog so no use having a separate blog for poems.
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I have just found this article, wish I had found it earlier. It’s a good ideas to encourage daily posts. I’ve written a couple of poems inspired by my little boys thoughts and it would have good to learn how to write as well. I’ll watch out for the next course. In the mean time there is loads of info in this article!
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