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.
Blanche packs a picnic:
tomato sandwich with mayonnaise,
a moon pie and RC Cola.
Horseback riding through rhododendrons
at the Fires Creek Campground,
wood smoke wafts on a breeze.
Campers roasting hotdogs
and marshmallows over a fire.
Bullfrogs blow their trumpets,
white-tailed deer drink clear waters.
She fords the stream:
Leatherwood Falls resounds.
This poem first appeared in the poetry book, Blanche, Poems of a Blue Ridge Woman, Published by: Redhawk Publications, 2021.