April Is National Poetry Month!

NPM poster courtesy Poets.org.


April can be the cruelest month with its variations in weather and temperature, but, it is also National Poetry Month--a cause for celebration! There are many mini-celebrations taking place this month in the blogosphere. Laura Salas is posting a short video "poem starter" each day. Heidi Mordhorst is hosting the writing of a group poem, word by word. Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong are promoting their marvelous Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School with videos of some of the poems. On the 23rd, I'll be doing a guest post for Laura Shovan's exploration of technology and poetry, TechnoVerse, and, on the 25th, I'll be adding to the progressive poem that Irene Latham will have going. This is the second year she's run this cooperative venture.

Jama Rattigan has collected and posted links to these and more. There's certainly, as Sylvia Vardell has referred to it, a "poetry-palooza" happening this April!

I wasn't planning on doing anything special for NPM, but I've been shamed into it by all the ambitious and creative projects that have been proposed. So, I've decided to post an ekphrastic poem each week (five in all). Look for them on Mondays. The first one is today, and it's definitely meant to be taken as a comment on teenage drama queens.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. "Young Girl Holding a Loose Bouquet" by Mary Cassett, courtesy The Athenaeum. Click on the image to enlarge.