April is National Poetry Month, a movement that encourages folks to center poetry within their daily interactions. Let’s celebrate by reading poetry together or creating your own and sharing it with us!

 

Enjoy a few poems from Canadian poets:

The Flame: Poems and Other Selections from Notebooks by Leonard Cohen

“The Flame is a stunning collection of Leonard Cohen's last poems, selected and ordered by the author in the final months of his life.”

Clinic Day by Diana Fitzgerald Bryden

“Diana Fitzgerald Bryden's second book of poetry, Clinic Day, (choreo)graphs the experiences and thoughts and feelings of three characters (The Secretary, The Surgeon, and a wanderer named - not inaptly - Blake), who perform a pas de trois of yearning and loss and occasional moments of grace. If at times the dance has a fevered quality, it is also, always, electrically alive and exquisitely shaped. In the clinic that lies at the heart of this unravelling day there is no panacea and no placebo, but there are the consolations of attending with clarity and honesty, and the healing powers of image and metaphor and wit.”

 

Listen to an audio for inspiration:

Poetry Please (various authors)

“BBC Radio 4's Poetry Please is the longest-running broadcast of verse anywhere in the world. First aired in 1979, the programme, a request show which broadcasts to two million listeners a week, has become a unique record of the country's best-loved poems over the decades since its inception. The BBC has looked back through its rich archive of recordings to produce a poll of the most asked-for and most broadcast pieces ever: 50 of those poems are read here by Adjoa Andoh and Anton Lesser, both regular voices for the programme.” 

 

Peruse Poetry with the kids:

Explore Poetry by Andi Doehn

“Poems can be silly, serious, or fun, just like kids! Whether it's the sing-song rhythm of a limerick, the serendipitous magic of a found poem, the deceptive simplicity of a haiku, or the easy familiarity of an acrostic poem, children are charmed by poetry. And what's more fun than reading poetry? Writing it! In Explore Poetry! With 25 Great Projects children have fun learning about different forms of poetry while delving into different literary techniques such as personification, metaphor, and alliteration, all of which are discussed in a simple and accessible way. Activities include creative writing exercises designed to reinforce language arts skills, plus art projects that encourage children to visualize concepts and definitions. Short biographies of important poets reinforce the concept of poetry as an important part of society.” 

 

Or Solo Scholarship:

Why Poetry by Matthew Zapruder

"An impassioned call for a return to reading poetry and an incisive argument for poetry's accessibility to all readers, by critically acclaimed poet Matthew Zapruder. In ‘Why Poetry,’ award-winning poet Matthew Zapruder takes on what it is that poetry--and poetry alone--can do. Zapruder argues that the way we have been taught to read poetry is the very thing that prevents us from enjoying it. In lively, lilting prose, he shows us how that misunderstanding interferes with our direct experience of poetry and creates the sense of confusion or inadequacy that many of us feel when faced with it.”

 

Here is a Haiku titled ‘Squirrel’ by Coleen:

Running down a tree

Bounding quickly across lawns

Digging up a nut.

 

Blank verse, rhymed, free verse, narrative, sonnet – the choice is yours. Discover a hidden talent and express yourself.