Read Write Poetry
The Cuyahoga County Public Library's National Poetry Month "Read + Write: 30 Days of Poetry" is now live! No fooling! Sign up to receive their daily National Poetry Month emails, sending you creative writing exercises and poems "to inspire you and unleash your creative spark," with a special focus on the poets and poetry of Northeast Ohio.
Today's post explores the importance of the alphabet, with a poem about the letter "a" by Cleveland's John Donahue, and an abecedarian poetry prompt, featuring alphabetic exemplars by poets Robert Pinsky and Darlene Arbuckle Reese. (Don't know what an abecedarian poem is? Well, now's your time to find out.)It's worth checking out. Sign up, or just bookmark their page, but be sure to check for something new every day for the next thirty days.
Meanwhile, the Lakewood library will also be featuring readings and events. Stay tuned for more info, but as a starter, at 7 pm today, the Lakewood library will celebrate a new posthumous collection of the works of Kent poet and bartender Mort Krahling. Maj Ragain, Brooke Horvath and Larry Smith will be among those joining the celebration of this rare, self-contained man. More at the Lakewood library web page.
Farther away from Cleveland, over at the "Poetic Asides" page on the Writer's Digest blog, Robert Brewer has the 7th annual April PAD (Poem-A-Day) Challenge: 30 days, 30 prompts. For this year's challenge, the top poem for each day's prompt will be published in a slick anthology, selected by an all-star cast of guest judges, including Thomas Lux, Barbara Hamby, Bob Hicok, Traci Brimhall, Jericho Brown, Sandra Beasley, Amy King, and more than 20 others. Find each day's prompt on the Poetic Asides home page.
And, lots of other stuff going on during poetry month-- celebrate by going to a local poetry reading! Keep an eye on the Cleveland poetry calendar (at the top of the page), or if you know of other events, post them in the comments--
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Just after I posted that, I got an e-mail with the Lakewood Library events for National Poetry month. One event coming up immediately: at 7 pm today, the Lakewood library will celebrate a new posthumous collection of the works of Kent poet and bartender Mort Krahling. Maj Ragain, Brooke Horvath and Larry Smith will be among those joining the celebration of this rare, self-contained man. More at the Lakewood library web page: www.lakewoodpubliclibrary.org/poetry
Another event at Lakewood, coming up soon-- tomorrow!-- is "A Bomb in Her Bosom: the Enigma of Emily Dickinson," A Dramatic Presentation by Wordstage, at the Lakewood Public Library Main Branch, 15425 Detroit Avenue
Description
The first word of the first poem she ever wrote was, appropriately enough, “awake.” Almost two centuries later, Emily Dickinson is still jolting us into consciousness. The legendary recluse, who spent most of her life hidden from the world in the small town of Amherst, Massachusetts, wrote poetry for four decades yet allowed only a handful of her poems to be published in her lifetime. It wasn’t until decades after her death, that all 1,789 of them were discovered and published in their original, unedited form. But according to recent scholarship and new biographies, the myth of the shy, virginal woman in the white dress hidden away in her father’s house, is too simple. The Dickinson of closer inspection reveals a fiercely passionate poetic pioneer with a withering wit and yearnings that, like a good poem, can lift the top of your head off. In truth, her avoidance of public life may have had a less romantic cause—epilepsy. (The most effective treatment available for such a condition to those who could afford it would have been to simply stay home.) The debate rages on and readers are welcome to make up their own minds. Whatever the case, Dickinson has never suffered from a shortage of fans and admirers and she is now widely considered one of the New World’s greatest poets. WordStage examines her life and literary legacy through dramatic readings of her own poems, letters and diaries, accompanied by the music of her time.
Thursday, April 3 at 7:00 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium
www.lakewoodpubliclibrary.org/poetry
From Phil Metres: John Carroll University is hosting Simon Armitage this coming Monday, April 7. Armitage, the most prominent and exciting young poet in England, has been called "the next Philip Larkin." I've never seen a finer reader of poetry. Monday, April 7, 7pm in Donohue Auditorium in the Dolan Science building. Free and open to the public. Be there!
Also: 16 Resources for National Poetry Month
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