National Poetry Month falls in April every year. It is a marvellous opportunity to celebrate the expressiveness, delight, and pure charm of poetry. It is a special occasion that reminds us of the integral role of poets and poetry in our cultures. Also in each and every culture. Poetry helps us appreciate the world around us and empathize with one another. Typically, we think of poetry as boring and nerdy. This month allows us to change our perspectives and look upon poetry. Poetry is a rhythmic art of expressing one’s love and thoughts.
When was it introduced?
National Poetry Month, in the month of April, celebrated since 1996. The Academy of American Poets assigned April month as a national poetry month. The idea behind it was to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States. The Academy of American Poets’ website Poets.org serves as a hub for information about local poetry events during the month.
Inspiration all matters
This month’s celebration is a result of beautiful inspiration from various months. The success of Black History Month, held each February and Women’s History Month, held in March paved the way for celebrating poetry in the month of April. In 1995, the Academy of American Poets convened a group of publishers, booksellers, librarians, literary organizations, poets, and teachers to discuss the need and usefulness of a similar monthlong holiday to celebrate poetry. That’s how we celebrate April as a month of ‘National Poetry Month’
Social Media
With the advent of social media in our life, we take part in so many events and happenings around the world. Social media platforms like Blogs, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter provide us with ample information. They inform, motivate, find, and explore various content and people with one another. Through one such forum, many of us would have known, that April is the month of ‘National Poetry Month’.
Along with Social Media, we have so many applications to post our writing. The important and known applications or Apps are “YourQuote” and “Miraquill”. They help us to create a perfect post structure for our lines along with Canva. These two applications or Apps have a special feature. They encourage their users to write daily by providing prompts. These prompts instigate and stir the mind of every user to create or attempt to create a poem or prose piece. With the help of these applications, many would have found that poetry interests them (even I found). For one such prompt given by yq-restzone on Instagram, I began to attempt writing verses or lines.
Prompt: The Language of Separation (Prompt 7, given on April 7)
My title: What language are we speaking? (posted in jan__balan)
‘silence’, the toughest language
for people around the world to break.
‘hope’, optimistic language
motivates to move mountains.
‘tears’, language twines
broken hearts for stitching purposes.
mystery around languages
walks straight through us.
language of separation
knocks human mind
not to learn, just to understand.
Jan Balan
Attempt, Practice and Write
“I need about one hundred fifty drafts of a poem to get it right, and fifty more to make it sound spontaneous.”
James Dickey
National Poetry Month is to know various poets and writers who attempt to write poetry around us. So support each and everyone you find writing poetry and attempting to write poetry. It is not exclusive to Poets it is for everyone who wishes to express their emotions through verse. Through one of my Instagram friends, Shanmuga Priya (untold_scribbles), I happen to see the yq_restzone page on Instagram. This page never fails to give prompts daily. They never stop by just giving, they go further a step to appreciate the good work. Do check their page and other writer’s page. Support them. Appreciation is the biggest gift to everyone. So attempt to write one by grabbing the pen and paper or notepad in the device you are reading the article.
Happy writing
Do check “Earth is Sick”
