April is NATIONAL POETRY MONTH and yesterday was POEM IN YOUR
POCKET DAY. It originated in NYC in 2002 and went nationwide in 2008. The idea is to carry around a poem in your
pocket all day and take it out to share it with family, friends, co-workers, passersby,
etc. I can just see folks in
Central Park in NYC doing this --- but in MY town???
The poem I had in my pocket today was Vachel Lindsay’s
“The Congo.” (Well, the first of the three parts of this long, excitable poem
anyway.) I learned the first part of the poem when I was in
the 4th grade, and I still remember it 4 decades later! I just loved
the dramatic way our teacher read it to the class. I still think it’s a great
poem that’s meant to be read aloud with gusto! I love this poem!
I was going to my very first ever F2F Book Club Meeting at the public library last night, and the discussion topic just happened to be POETRY! If I got the chance, I planned to pull it out of my pocket and read it for the folks.
I never got the chance. After fishing all day, even though I was thoroughly exhausted, I drove the 20 minutes to town and found the library almost deserted. The librarian told me that the Book Group had more or less fizzled out, people had stopped coming. I was so disappointed. I pointed out that the monthly announcements were still posted on the library's website. I left my name & phone number with a note that if anyone wanted to revive the group, I would gladly commit to showing up for the monthly meeting.
I even stopped by the bookstore, but it was closed too. I was wanting to share my poem with them. So in deep dejection, I blew my diet and had a corn dog and a vanilla ice cream, before I hauled my sorry ass home and dropped in to bed at 8 p.m. --- and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
I did get my chance to read my poem many times that day, though, practicing reciting it for my dog!
Oh, just in case you want to read the poem here's where you can find it:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/237642
I was going to my very first ever F2F Book Club Meeting at the public library last night, and the discussion topic just happened to be POETRY! If I got the chance, I planned to pull it out of my pocket and read it for the folks.
I never got the chance. After fishing all day, even though I was thoroughly exhausted, I drove the 20 minutes to town and found the library almost deserted. The librarian told me that the Book Group had more or less fizzled out, people had stopped coming. I was so disappointed. I pointed out that the monthly announcements were still posted on the library's website. I left my name & phone number with a note that if anyone wanted to revive the group, I would gladly commit to showing up for the monthly meeting.
I even stopped by the bookstore, but it was closed too. I was wanting to share my poem with them. So in deep dejection, I blew my diet and had a corn dog and a vanilla ice cream, before I hauled my sorry ass home and dropped in to bed at 8 p.m. --- and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
I did get my chance to read my poem many times that day, though, practicing reciting it for my dog!
Oh, just in case you want to read the poem here's where you can find it:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/237642
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