National Poetry Month
Inspired by Black History month, The Academy of American Poets worked with a variety of interested parties including teachers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and of course poets to figure out the many ways poetry could be celebrated. They concluded April was a great month for the celebration, and on April 1, 1996, President Bill Clinton proclaimed April to be National Poetry Month.
Following the Academy’s lead, Writers’ Morning Out has posted a poem-a-day during April since WMO’s inception in 2010.
There are seven white daffodils below my kitchen window,
a squirrel in the crook of the dogwood tree,
the branches of the cypress wave like floaty fans,
and there’s a war on TV.
Children in bright coats hold their parents’ hands,
cross a broken bridge to a crowd and a train.
They carry dogs and water and plastic shopping bags.
Not so much –
everything.