April is National Poetry Month. To celebrate, we will be giving all patrons who visit the library a different poem (by a different poet) each day. All of the staff participated in selecting our favorite poems to share with the community. Inaugurated in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, the goal of National Poetry Month is to increase awareness and appreciation for our poetic heritage and living poets. Here’s one of my favorites:
Birdfoot’s Grampa by Joseph Bruchac
The old man
must have stopped our car
two dozen times to climb out
and gather into his hands
the small toads blinded
by our light and leaping,
live drops of rain.
The rain was falling,
a mist about his white hair
and I kept saying
you can’t save them all,
accept it, get back in
we’ve got places to go.
But, leathery hands full
of wet brown life,
knee deep in the summer
roadside grass,
he just smiled and said
they have places to go, too.
A sampling of some of the poets we’ll feature:
The Collected Poems by Wallace Stevens 811 STE
Colors Passing Through Us: Poems by Marge Piercy 811.54 PIE
Death and Taxes by Dorothy Parker 811 PAR
I Shall Not Be Moved by Maya Angelou 811 ANG
Jim’s Fine Poetry by Jim Kelleher 811.54 KEL
Robert Frost: poetry and prose by Robert Frost 818 FRO
Selected Poems: 1956- 1968 by Leonard Cohen 811 COH
Selected Poems of William Carlos Williams by William Carlos Williams 811 WIL
Turtle Island by Gary Snyder 811 SNY
Please do browse our poetry collection located in the 800’s to find your favorite poems and to discover new ones! And, be sure to stop in each day in April to receive our selected poem of the day.
~Ann Marie
Ann Marie is the Library Director for the Oliver Wolcott Library.
