April is National Poetry Month established by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is a “world-wide literary celebration with millions of teachers, students, readers, librarians, publishers, booksellers, and poets/writers honoring the importance of poetry in both culture and in our personal lives.” [Two Sylvias Press]

The first poems were composed before written language or reading existed. The Epic of Gilgamesh, written in what is now Iran, dates back to the third millennium BCE. Other early works were the Iliad and the Odyssey by the Greek poet Homer, Indian and Sanskrit epics, and African hunting poetry.

As an Art Form, poetry was different from History because it embodied a concentrated awareness of experience. Repetition and rhyme helped hearers remember the narrative. Here is how some poets describe their craft:

JOY HAJRO is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served three terms as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate. She is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma. She writes “When I began to listen to poetry, it’s when I began to listen to the stones, and I began to listen to what the clouds had to say, and I began to listen to others. And I think, most importantly for all of us, then you begin to learn to listen to the soul, the soul of yourself in here, which is also the soul of everyone else.” 

DYLAN THOMAS says that “Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toenails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own.”

To ALLEN GINSBERG “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” 

“Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable,” said CARL SANDBURG. “Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.”

[Thanks to Two Sylvias’ Press for these quotations.]

Writing Prompt

You may be a practicing poet. You may have one or two poems written by an earlier you. Go find them.

Now:

1. Find a book of poetry and read. Read one out loud.

2. On paper or on your keyboard, try to describe the feeling you have about a subject you hesitate to talk about.

3. Or describe the signs of spring outside your door.