April is National Poetry Month

www.Poets.org

Celebrate your life by reading and reciting poetry this April, National Poetry Month.

Suggestions:

1. Pull out your old box of sidewalk chalk and chalk a poem on your driveway. Pick a shot one!

2. Copy off a favorite poems and carry it with you wherever you go in your pocket. Read it aloud to anyone who will listen.

3. Slip a poem in your children's lunch boxes for them to discover at lunch time. I suggest a silly poem.

4. Find a sexy poem that speaks to you. Read it aloud to your spouse at bedtime. Or better yet, ask him/her to read it aloud to you.

5. Go to your public library and check out a volume of poetry peruse it for a new favorite. Hint: poetry is shelved in the 800s in libraries using the Dewey Decimal system.

6. Attempt to write a concrete or shape poem. Don't worry about making it rhyme.

7. Memorize a poem this month then you will always have it with you.

8. If you are a blogger, dedicate one blog this month to poetry or include a poem in one of your blog posts. I dare you!

9. Reread a poem that you remember from your childhood. Take a moment to walk down memory lane in your mind.

10. Write a haiku. Remember the syllable count is 5-7-5.

Here is my attempt---

I write a haiku

to honor poetry month

in my heart today!

11. Visit www.Poets.Org for more ideas. If you are a teacher, there are even terrific lesson ideas.

"Poetry causes us to slow down, to take time to pause." 

----Naomi Shihab Nye