National Poetry Month


                       

Nothing stirs the soul like a good poem.  Whether you are reading Robert Frost or Rupi Kaur, words in a poem cut through to the heart of emotion. 

On the 25th anniversary of National Poetry Month, we want to celebrate new poets as well as the classics!  Contemporary poets have created a poetry boom by rewriting the rules for poems in the modern age; however, one cannot break the rules if one does not know what they are at first!  

We celebrate all poets, of all styles and backgrounds and ages, as the living thing we call language changes and morphs with the times, so does poetry.  It is a beautiful thing to behold and it is exciting to observe that the poems that push boundaries and express that which everyone seems to be feeling are coming to the fore. 

Here are just a few recommendations from our library:

Iraqi Poetry Today

How a Poem Moves: a field guide for readers of poetry

Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in poetry and comics 

The Penguin Book of Japanese Verse 

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou 

The Poems of Emily Dickinson 

American Smooth: poems by Rita Dove