–Happy “I Wish It Were” Poetry Day!

It’s National Poetry Day in the UK, with all sorts of readings, events, and fetes honoring the poem. Oh, how I wish today were all about poetry love in the US. Ok, so it’s technically the 57^th Annual Poetry Day, founded by Robert Frost in 1955. But despite intense googling, I have only been able to find one event, albeit it’s a doozy.

Outgoing US Poet Laureate and 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner W.S. Merwin will read today at 6 pm in the auditorium of the Harold Washington Library, in Chicago. Admission is free and open to the public on a first-come basis. Anyone in Chicago, or in Illinois for that matter, should beat a path there fast.

Sponsored by The Poetry Foundation, the Poetry Day reading series has featured such luminaries as T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Carl Sandburg, W.H. Auden, Anne Sexton, John Ashbery, Adrienne Rich, Gwendolyn Brooks, Billy Collins, and Seamus Heaney. Still, I can’t help wishing that there were also corollary events in schools, libraries, and communities across the country.

Though perhaps perceived by some as one of the more elusive forms of literature, poetry is still relevant, engaging, and, I would argue, much-needed in today’s society. In August, when Philip Levine was named the new US Poet Laureate, his books of poems completely sold out in bookstores and online. (His inaugural reading is set for Oct. 17). Just last month, Britain’s Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy compared poetry to texting and encouraged school teachers to do the same. Today, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Swedish Poet Tomas Tranströmer, the first time someone has won for poetry since 1996.

We do have a National Poetry Month in April, to which I am greatly looking forward. Still, I wish there were more fanfare and participation in Poetry Day founded by American legend Robert Frost.  Just saying, couldn’t we all use more poetry in our lives?

3 Great Sites to Get Your Poem On
Each features a poem-of-the-day and searchable databases of poets, poems, and all things poetic.

Poetry Foundation/Poetry Magazine

Poets.Org/American Poet Magazine

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

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