April is National Poetry Month and I hope to provide a number of posts this month with some good poems, links, and encouragement to make poetry a regular part of your diet. I'll have some stuff for aspiring poets as well.
A few quick links to start off the month.
A lot of great stuff on NPM from Poets.org.
Receive a poem a day in your inbox this month.
Scholastic gives some helpful links for teachers.
Charles Bernstein says he is Against National Poetry Month, As Such.
Listen to W.H. Auden (died 1973) read his poem First Things First. (bio, wikipedia)
The Next Poem by Dana Gioia (link)
How much better it seems now
than when it is finally done–
the unforgettable first line,
the cunning way the stanzas run.The rhymes soft-spoken and suggestive
are barely audible at first,
an appetite not yet acknowledged
like the inkling of a thirst.
While gradually the form appears
as each line is coaxed aloud–
the architecture of a room
seen from the middle of a crowd.
The music that of common speech
but slanted so that each detail
sounds unexpected as a sharp
inserted in a simple scale.
No jumble box of imagery
dumped glumly in the reader's lap
or elegantly packaged junk
the unsuspecting must unwrap.
But words that could direct a friend
precisely to an unknown place,
those few unshakeable details
that no confusion can erase.
And the real subject left unspoken
but unmistakable to those
who don't expect a jungle parrot
in the black and white of prose.
How much better it seems now
than when it is finally written.
How hungrily one waits to feel
the bright lure seized, the old hook bitten.
