Inspiration, National Poetry Month

Get Inspired: 10 Engaging Ideas to Celebrate Poetry Month

The month of April brings showers, flowers, and poems!

This poster was designed by Marc Brown, creator of the famous Arthur book. The artwork incorporates an excerpted line from one of my favorite poets: “Carrying” by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón

Ten Ways to celebrate Poetry Month:

  1. Sign-up for Poem-a-Day, curated this month by U. S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, and read a poem each morning.
  2. Record yourself reading a poem and send it in a text to your child, grandchild, friend, partner, or all of the above.
  3. Post the same poem to your social media. Use @poetsorg on Twitter and Instagram.
  4. Read about your state poet laureate. Give them a shout-out on social media!
  5. Buy a book of poetry from your local bookstore, stroll to the coffee shop, and enjoy the read.
  6. Share a book of poetry by donating it to a little library in your area.
  7. Attend a poetry reading, open mic, or poetry slam via Zoom.
  8. Take a walk and write a poem outside. Try a Haiku.
  9. Share a poem for Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 27, 2023, on social media using the hashtag #PocketPoem.
  10. Encourage your writing, blog, or reading community to write short poems or haikus to be performed at your next meeting. You can even create a prize for the most creative entry.

April 4th was Maya Angelou Day. This quote is from the famous poem “Still, I Rise,” which she wrote in 1976.

“You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise.”

Maya Angelou

The poem speaks to the idea that even when we come from a place of oppression or pain, we have the power to rise above it and create a better future for ourselves and others.

Book Stuff:

In my latest newsletter, I wrote about Guns to Gardens. This was about an organization forging buyback guns into garden tools. What a brilliant idea. And keeping with the garden theme, I wrote about how plants grow good vibes. I can attest to that finding. I’m happier when I’m out in my garden or in nature.

For my newsletter subscribers, I had two ARCs (in print form) given via a raffle. They were the first to receive the code for the e-Arcs of THE GARDEN OF SECOND CHANCES.

This month, I’m sharing the codes with blog subscribers. 

If you’re a NetGalley member, my novel is now featured on their front page. I’d love for you to read it and leave a review.

Click on this link to Goodreads. Scroll to my book cover, and click “Vote for this book.” It takes you to June 2023 Books. This pushes my book up to higher levels and gains visibility.

While you’re there, you can add it to your Want to Read stack.

Lastly, I wrote a prequel for TGOSC. It’s a short ten pages.

If you subscribe to the newsletter, I’ll send it to you. Use the home page to subscribe.

Thank you for reading and helping out this debut author. Be well.

National Poetry Month, poetry

Making Book Spines into Poetry

It’s the last day of Poetry Month and I’ve enjoyed many poems and haiku’s around the blog sphere, but one of my favorite types of poetry is the ingenious and ad-lib example found on book spines. Several people and some children posted their tower of ten to three books, snapped a shot, and posted their ‘books of poetry.’ 


According to The Loco Teacher she’s been using this type of poetry for three years with her second to fifth grade students. One of her second grade students, a child of six or seven years old, assembled the poetry above. It’s a beautiful image.  

This one may have been assembled by a budding journalist:

100scopenotes.com

Perhaps from a dark dreamer:

categardner.net


Ghosts Know


In the Dark of the Night
Fallen Pretty Monsters
Perchance to Dream
In the Shadow of Gotham

From a library which may be tired of a trend:

Assoc. of Libraries for Children

And my own attempt: 

                                                                         The Heart of a Woman
                                                                         Light on Snow
                                                                         The Center of Everything
                                                                         Take Each Day One Step at a Time
 

I enjoyed looking through my books and making towers. Poetry is one of those things that can touch the heart and reverberate through the mind, sparking further creativity. Maybe when you get ‘writers’ block or the pen stops after the first line, you can grab some books and make some poetry long after April disappears.