Brittany Patton
Contributing Writer
Publishers, booksellers, educators and literary organizations use April every year to promote poetry: Publishers often release and publicize poetry titles in April and in schools English focus on poetry units.
The United States and Canada both celebrate National Poetry Month every April. National Poetry Month also known as NPM is a celebration of poetry first introduced in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets.
The reason for National Poetry Month is to highlight the legacy and ongoing achievement of poets and introduce more people to the pleasures of reading poetry.
According to the Academy of American Poets also called AAP National Poetry Month is now the largest literary celebration in the world.
The Webster Groves local library has a game where visitors carry poems in their pockets, and if a staff member asks the visitor for the poem, and the visitor shows the poem then the visitor wins a prize.
Each year the academy creates and distributes nearly 200,000 official NPM posters, which are mailed for free to teachers, librarians and booksellers nationwide. The academy also presents several special events and readings in April, including it’s star-studded annual Poetry & The Creative Mind.
Although, some don’t think there is anything wrong with NPM. Some think it’s pointless and unnecessary.
Jough Dempsey, poet, critic, and the editor of Plagiarist.com is one of those people. On March 31, 2002 Dempsey wrote an article called “National Schmational: Do We Really Need A ‘National Poetry Month’?” In his article Dempsey wrote “…So in order to sell more books of poetry, the AAP created “National Poetry Month” to bring poetry into the National Spotlight of the Under-Appreciated. It’s too bad that most of the poetry that they promote is of the vaguest and most unappealing kind being written…”
Most people don’t know this, but as soon as the alphabet was invented, the first poem was written. Writing poems was one of the earliest engagements of the human mind second only to painting.
National Poem in Your Pocket Day was Thursday, April 18. People shared poem selections on Twitter by using the hashtag #pocketpoem.
