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April Is National Poetry Month: “What Will Your Verse Be?”
I am a fiction writer and an academic scholar, and wouldn’t use the term “poet” to label myself, but I do use poetry to make my prose pop.
Every April – National Poetry Month – for the past three or four years, I have (tried) to participate in Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-A-Day Challenge, which is to write a poem based on a prompt every day of the month.
I say I have “tried” because I usually end up missing a few days (OK, sometimes an entire week), but even if I just try to write a handful of poems during the month, I see a vast improvement in the literary quality of my prose. It challenges me to think differently about language.
I encourage all of you – even those of you who do not identify as “poets” – to do something poetry-related this April. Here are some suggestions:
- Join me and thousands others for the Poem-A-Day Challenge.
- Check out Found Poetry Review’s National Poetry Month project to read poems from their “troop of poetry scouts.”
- Visit the Poetry Foundation’s annual poetry blogging extravaganza that hosts 20+ published poets.
- Follow poetry events taking place on Twitter: @POETSorg.
- Participate in Poem in Your Pocket on April 30.
- See other news and events for National Poetry Month at Poets.org.
If I cannot convince you of the merits of poetry, perhaps Robin Williams in Dead Poet’s Society can:
What will your verse be?
Written by Anne Greenawalt, writer and writing instructor
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Source: http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/2015/03/april-is-national-poetry-month-what.html
