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.

“Out West Trip March, 1989” by Caren Stuart

Rising, surprising,

from Arizona’s dry palette,

Jerome is still clinging

to the side of its hill,

its roads steeply climbing

and lined with the houses

and shops built by miners

long since moved on,

where Slim Chance & Friends

are pickin’ nights at The Palace

drinkin’ watered down high balls

in tall, smoky rooms,

where mornings, the locals

are gathered at Macey’s

downing coffee and pies

and the talk of the town,

where Dede won’t stay

in hotels rumored haunted,

where Tracy, the potter,

makes up his spare rooms,

where Still Life With Woodpecker’s

on the shelf in the hallway

signed by Tom Robbins,

still wishing “Good Luck”.

 

 

Previously Published in Wish You Were Here: A Poetry and Prose Anthology by Old Mountain Press