April is Poetry Month!

Posted on by

April is National Poetry Month!

National Poetry Month, April 2021. Celebrating 25 years. The 2021 poster was designed by twelfth grader Bao Lu from Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, New York, who was the winner of the 2021 National Poetry Month Poster Contest, and features lines by U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. "There is nowhere else I want to be but here. I lean into the rhythm of your heart to see where it will take us." Image is an impressionistic painting of a young man floating (or falling) over the telephone lines of a three or four lane road with houses lining the sides. A red-orange-pink ball hovers below his left foot. A yellow hand on a crossing sign is illuminated. The colors are vibrant on a wash of black, white, gray, and tans that make up the scene.

Last year, we did a blackout poetry Crafternoon, and this year we’d like to ask you:

Who is your favorite poet?

What’s your favorite poem?

Let me (Meredith Lewis) know by 5:00 this Friday, April 16 either via email (lewisma@durhamtech.edu) or Teams chat for a chance to have you favorite poem made into this year’s Durham Tech Library Poetry Month bookmarks.

(I’m going to tell you a secret: If you send me a poem or poet that you’d just think would make a good bookmark, I won’t hold it against you and no one is fact-checking what “favorite” means in this context. A short to mid-length poem with vivid imagery is ideal.)

Click through to see previous Durham Tech Library Poetry Month bookmarks and print your own (which are designed to be colored in if you so desire). 

2-sided bookmarks with image on one side and poem on other side. Poems consist of Mary Oliver's "Hummingbirds" with geometric hummingbird outline on back, Amorak Huey's "We Were All Odysseus in those Days" with an image of a ship, Spartan helmet, and softball and glove, Tracy K. Smith's "The Good Life" with an image of a coffee cup and wine glass, W.S. Merwin's "For a Coming Extinction" with gray whales, and Francisco X. Alarcon's "Ode to My Shoes" with a pair of canvas tennis shoes.
2019 Poetry Month bookmarks: “Hummingbirds” by Mary Oliver, “We Were All Odysseus in those Days” by Amorak Huey, “The Good Life” Tracy K. Smith, “For a Coming Extinction” by 
W.S. Merwin, and “Ode to My Shoes” by Francisco X. Alarcon

Last year’s April Crafternoon: Create your own blackout poetry.

2017 poetry month bookmarks: Anecdote of Men by the Thousand by Wallace Stevens, The Dogs at Live Oak Beach, Santa Cruz by Alicia Ostriker, Cotton Candy by Edward Hirsch, and My Madonna by Robert W. Service
2017 Poetry Month bookmarks: “Anecdote of Men by the Thousand” by Wallace Stevens, “The Dogs at Live Oak Beach, Santa Cruz” by Alicia Ostriker, “Cotton Candy” by Edward Hirsch, and “My Madonna” by Robert W. Service
2017 poetry month bookmarks: Sea Grapes by Derrek Walcott, somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond by e.e. cummings, [a haiku rumination on sushi] by Yosa Buson, and Exit by Rita Dove
2017 Poetry Month bookmarks: “Sea Grapes” by Derrek Walcott, “somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond” by e.e. cummings, [a haiku rumination on sushi] by Yosa Buson, and “Exit” by Rita Dove
2017 poetry month bookmarks: The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams, Next Time Ask More Questions by Naomi Shihab Nye, The Tyger by William Blake, and El Poema by Homero Aridjis (translated by Eliot Weinberger)
2017 Poetry Month bookmarks: “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams, “Next Time Ask More Questions” by Naomi Shihab Nye, “The Tyger” by William Blake, and “El Poema” by Homero Aridjis (translated by Eliot Weinberger)

About Meredith Lewis

Meredith is a librarian at Durham Tech on both the Main and Orange County Campuses.