All April long, we've been celebrating Poetry Month. We released a poetry-themed podcast episode featuring renowned humorist, novelist and poet, Calvin Trillin; two wildly talented National Student Poets; and a Massachusetts educator whose district has a thriving poetry club (listen here!). We also featured the poetry of some of our Scholastic Art & Writing Award winners (read it here, here, and here), sang praises of Maya Angelou, found some poetry anthologies in our archives, and shared some of our favorite Scholastic poetry collections for kids!
But today is one of our favorite days of Poetry Month: Poem In Your Pocket Day! Spearheaded by the Academy of American Poets, the day encourages people to select a poem, carry it with them, and share it with others throughout the day! Be sure to check out #pocketpoem on Twitter and Instagram to discover some amazing poetry.
Our bloggers wanted to join the celebration by sharing the poems we'll be carrying in our pockets today!
"Early Bird" by Shel Silverstein (carried by Alex W.)
Oh, if you’re a bird, be an early bird
And catch the worm for your breakfast plate.
If you’re a bird, be an early bird—
But if you’re a worm, sleep late.
A portion from "Untitled" by Anna Moschovakis (carried by Julia G.)
I don’t remember my grammar
rules. I don’t think English is very good
for a certain kind of inventioning. I gather
some readers don’t like being
confronted with language in every word.
I want to be a word. I would be abstract
with an inscrutable ending.
An original haiku by Gina A.
Walk into work, give
my dress a little twirl, "Hey,
thanks, it has pockets."
"When Love Arrives" by Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye (carried by Brittany S.)
This one's a spoken word poem — watch the poets perform it here!
An original haiku by Mike B.
My daily mantra:
"Give kids the gift of reading"
My job, my purpose.
"Recuerdo" by Edna St. Vincent Millay (carried by Emily M.)
We were very tired, we were very merry
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blosing, and the dawn came soon.
We were very tired, we were very merry
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.
We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, "Good morrow, mother!" to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, "God bless you!" for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost (carried by Stephanie A.)
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Photo: Nicole Ortiz
