Pocket Poems

Is that a poem in your pocket?

Hello Friends —

Tomorrow, Thursday April 26, is officially Poem in Your Pocket Day, brought to you by the Academy of American Poets — the same folks who bring you National Poetry Month, www.poets.org, and today’s subject line.

Poem in Your Pocket Day makes for an excellent excuse to spread the joy of Poetry Month to even more people! If you’ve never done it before, handing out poems on the street is very fun and rewarding. At first people will think you’re trying to hand them some promotional flyer they’ll then have to go to the trouble of finding a recycling bin for, but then they become pleasantly surprised to discover you’re giving them a little gift that asks nothing in return.

You can find today’s poem and other pocket-prone poems for your own Poem in Your Pocket Day celebration in print-your-own-at-home PDF format here. And here’s the best part: no one really knows, nor does it particularly matter, which day is actually Poem in Your Pocket Day — you can hand out poems to strangers any day, particularly any day in April.

Enjoy.
Ellen

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

“Dust of Snow” by Robert Frost was also featured for Poem-a-Day April 16, 2007 and Poem-a-Day April 4, 2010.
Poet Robert Frost was also featured for Poem-a-Day April 30, 2008.

Poem-a-Day, April 27: The Look

The Look

Strephon kissed me in the spring,
Robin in the fall,
But Colin only looked at me
And never kissed at all.

Strephon’s kiss was lost in jest,
Robin’s lost in play,
But the kiss in Colin’s eyes
Haunts me night and day.

By Sara Teasdale from Rivers to the Sea (1915)

“The Look” by Sara Teasdale was also featured for Poem-a-Day April 8, 2008.

Poem-a-Day, April 29: cool.

THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

Forgive me, Gwendolyn Brooks. I know you get annoyed that this is the poem a disproportiate number of textbook and anthology editors have chosen to represent your entire body of work, but I just really like this one. Plus it fits nicely in the pockets of strangers on the street.

You can find this and other pocket-prone poems for your own Poem in Your Pocket Day celebration in print-your-own-at-home PDF format here. I am also very excited about a project Citizen Hope is doing in San Francisco on April 30 — organizing volunteers to read poems to elementary school students in San Francisco: Check it out here.

Poem in Your Pocket Day is brought to you by the Academy of American Poets, the same folks who bring you National Poetry Month and www.poets.org.

Poem-a-Day, April 28: What can I say? Another crow.

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

— Robert Frost, New Hampshire (1923),
also included in Collected Poems (1969)

Hi Friends —

April 29 was Poem in Your Pocket Day, and I had intentions of sending y’all a batch of pocket poems on the 28th so you could print and hand them out on 29th. But, here’s the thing: no one really knows, nor does it particularly matter, which day is actually Poem in Your Pocket Day. So I see no problem whatsoever with handing out pocket poems on the 30th. “Dust of Snow” is, in my opinion, a perfect poem for handing out to random strangers on the street outside the subway exit — which is where you’ll find me tomorrow morning before work. If you are so inspired or inclined, please feel free to make any day Poem in Your Pocket Day — for yourself, for others. More pocket-sized poems from this and past years’ poem-a-day series in print-your-own-at-home PDF format here.

I am also very excited about a project Citizen Hope is doing in San Francisco tomorrow — organizing volunteers to read poems to elementary school students in San Francisco. Check it out here.

“Dust of Snow” by Robert Frost was also featured for Poem-a-Day April 16, 2007.
Poet Robert Frost was also featured for Poem-a-Day April 30, 2008.

Poem-a-Day, April 29: Do I dare disturb the universe?

Hello Friends,

The line pictured above comes from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot, which can be read in full here.

One of the Academy of American Poets projects for National Poetry Month 2009 has been compiling photos of poetry out and about in our daily lives. View today’s and more poem photos at http://www.flickr.com/groups/freeverse/pool/.

Also, tomorrow, April 30, 2009, is Poem in Your Pocket Day! Poets and poetry enthusiasts will be handing out thousands of poems near subway stops in New York City, and on the streets and in schools and offices in other cities across the U.S. (which is pretty awesome if you ask me). More on poems ideal for pockets here.

Enjoy.
Ellen