Not only does April call for rainy days and a hectic school load, it also comes with National Poetry Month, inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. April marks the largest literary celebration in the world, serving as a reminder that poetry continues to be a voice for young adult authors, and a space of comfort and excitement. I know what you may be thinking, who freakin’ cares about poetry, this isn’t the 1800s, Robert Frost has BEEN dead. Well, look no further than this article to figure out how YOU can support National Poetry Month, and maybe even learn a little something about yourself and the literary arts.
1. Sign up for Poem-A-Day
A great vessel to discover new poets is the Poem-A-Day poetry series, featuring over 200 new and unpublished poems. Plus, they say that starting your day off with poetry evokes creativity, critical analysis, and other positive effects on the brain. Who is they, you ask? No idea.
2. Take a Poetry/Creative Writing Class
As we Hokies know, drop/add opened up recently, meaning it’s time to create our Fall 2018 class schedules. Being a Creative Writing major myself, let me just say you are missing out if you don’t take Intro to Creative Writing. This class showed me that I wanted to choose writing as a career and really forced me to unlock a creative, deep side of me I wasn’t even sure was there. And yes, STEM majors, the class fills an Area 6 and will give you a break from computations and whatever the hell else it is y’all do.
3. Encourage Friends to Share their Art
This goes further than just poetry. Sometimes, it may be hard for friends to be willing to reveal their artwork, which are usually where people face the most vulnerability. Vocalizing that you want to read your friends’ poems or short stories, or would love to hear the song they just wrote, or attend an art show they’re putting on for class – is crucial to letting your friends know that you want to support them. There have been many times where I’ve written a poem and have been afraid to show my pals because I thought that they’d be uninterested.
4. Don’t Just Read Poems, Watch Them
In this day and age, poetry is no longer confound to formatted text with rules and rhyming. Contrarily, modern poetry breaks ALL the rules, especially when in spoken word. If you’re unfamiliar, check out channels like Button Poetry on YouTube to discover a whole new side of self-expression. Here, you can find poems that will make you die laughing, poems that will make you sob, and poems that will just make you whisper “damn.”
5. Write a Poem for Mother’s Day
This seems self-explanatory, but what mother wouldn’t like a heartfelt, original poem from their beloved offspring? And don’t worry, if you don’t have anyone you could or would want to write a poem for this Mother’s Day, just write one for yourself. Or for Mother Earth. Or about literally anything you wanted, because that’s what poetry is, baby.