Poem in Your Pocket

Though officially celebrated on April 14th, I say celebrate national Poem in Your Pocket Day everyday! The idea is pretty self-explanatory - carry a poem you love with you or share one with those around you. The Academy of American Poets has some handy-dandy poetry books printed on tear-away sheets for just this purpose, but also poem PDFs to print and share.

see full list of poem PDFs here

Right now I wouldn't mind carrying around the poem found under "Moth" in my pocket for a few days. It's one of my favorites.

"Design"
by Robert Frost

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth--
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth--
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
What but design of darkness to appall?--
If design govern in a thing so small.

Shel Silverstein's art

Isn't it incredible that - for so many of us - to just look at these images is to remember the poems themselves? I think the impact that Shel Silverstein has made on our minds as children is argument enough to feed our children poetry daily (his poems, yes, but there are plenty of others too).

images via:

learning curve on the ecliptic, changehealthcare.com, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 

American Society of Authors and Writers, Save the Kales, and

Because Shel Silverstein is cooler than Life.

"April Rain Song"

 by soup & sunday (via these are a few of my favourite things...)

The following animated version of the poem, "April Rain Song," read by Langston Hughes and part of the HBO/Poetry Foundation's children's program, "Classical Baby (I'm Grown Up Now): The Poetry Show" makes me very happy:  April Rain Song : Classical Baby : Video.

National Poetry Month

 via poets.org

It's April which means that aside from taxes, Easter, and pollen - this month is all about poetry! Yep, it's "National Poetry Month" and to celebrate we thought we'd do a poetry-themed post every Monday.

Here's the first - a free poster! I know that Ms. Lorelei just blogged that you can get a free poster in honor of "Children's Book Week," but a good idea is a good idea and so... click here to get your own Elizabeth Bishop-inspired poetry poster before they run out.

P.S. Though this year's poster is free, you can buy posters from previous years for only $5 bucks. Sadly, my favorite, the 2005 Emily Dickinson inspired / Chip Kidd designed poster, is sold out. Bummer indeed.