National Poetry Month: Weekly Gems for Your Inbox with Poem-A-Day and Weekend Sherpa

I've been clearing out my email lately, unsubscribing from reams of newsletters, deals and alerts that flood my inbox daily. But, in addition to keeping my tried-and-true weekly round-up of lit mag goodness from The Review Review and Duotrope, I've just added two more to the list: Weekend Sherpa and National Poetry Month's Poem-a-Day.

I recently applied as a freelance writer to Weekend Sherpa, a Sonoma-based company that offers "insiders' recommendations on the best outdoor pursuits exclusive to California," and which I only now realize I mistakenly misspelled as one word (WeekendSherpa) in my letter of interest--a copywriter's nightmare.

Ah well. If I don't get any assignments describing favorite weekend getaways, at least I've got weekly inspiration in my inbox: this week's newsletter highlights San Francisco GoCars (I just did a rewrite for one in San Diego for Viator!) and a Segway ride around Angel Island ("They're fun and goofy... kinda like the Hall & Oates of outdoor recreation").

April is National Poetry Month, and I know I'm a little late here after tax day and the last frost date, but there are some really cool happenings for this annual event, considered by the Academy of American poets to be "the largest literary celebration in the world."

This year's poster, which holds the spotlight at my local library, was designed by National Book Award finalist Roz Chast, whose comic memoir Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? made me laugh out loud throughout, even though the topic--aging in America--isn't funny. If you'd like to post this one in your classroom, library or home office, you can request a free poster!

In addition to attending special events and readings throughout the country, you can sign up for National Poetry Month's aforementioned Poem-a-Day: receive original, previously unpublished poems  throughout the week and classic poems on weekends.

Finally, for any of you teachers out there, Dear Poet is a multimedia education project for grades 5 through 12 where students write letters in response to poems by award-winning poets (see the video below of Naomi Shihab Nye reading "How Do I Know When a Poem Is Finished?"). A curriculum specialist even helped design a series of classroom activities aligned with the Common Core.

According to the website:

Students—to participate in this year’s Dear Poet project, watch the videos below of Chancellors reading and discussing one of their poems. Then, write them a letter in response and send it by post or email to the Academy of American Poets, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038 ordearpoet@poets.org by April 30, 2015. Please include your name and the name of the poet to whom you’ve written. We will consider all letters for publication on Poets.org in May 2015. And our Chancellors will reply to select letters of their choosing.

Lynda Barry and National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month! Designated by the The Academy of American Poets, it is a time "when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture."

In the spirit of celebrating the vitality of poetic language, I offer you cartoonist Lynda Barry, creator of Ernie Pook's Comeek featuring the wonderfully candid child characters, Maybonne and Marlys--among others. (Check out The Greatest of Marlys, listed in Time Magazine's Top Ten Graphic Novels.) Barry also happens to be a painter, playwright, editor, commentator and teacher! Watch an 8-minute Poetry Foundation video of her comedic discussion HERE, including an examination of the cadence in Emily Dickinson's poetry, which Barry sings to both Gerschwinn and "The Girl from Ipanema"!

Lynda Barry

I didn't intend to blog about poetry at all; I didn't even know there was a month devoted to it. But the good 'ole worldwideweb led me delightfully astray after I saw this really cool brochure from The Writers Institute at Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College. They've got a bunch of great 3 and 4-day ($250) workshop offerings May 4-7 from 9 a.m.-noon, including "Writing the Unthinkable" with Lynda Barry. A little research on her website, Marlys Magazine, and I learned she can sing too!

Here's the online class description, written by Barry herself, I suspect. I love how she levels the playing field: