April was
National Poetry Month and unfortunately, we didn't celebrate or commemorate it in any way. We're making up for it in May and I've been sharing some of my favorite poets and poems with you in class. I've enjoyed watching your faces light up and listening to you say insightful things about poetry. I think your arts really enhance your ability to appreciate and understand metaphors and other figurative language. It's also nice that we can count the poems we read toward our twenty-five book total. Twenty poems roughly equal a book so keep track of the ones you read (and be able to recall the poem and say something insightful about it.)
I'm writing this post in order to include links to some of the websites I use to find poems for teaching--and for enjoying on my own.
- Poetry 180--The poetry initiatiative created by Billy Collins when he was Poet Laureate.
- Favorite Poem Project--The poetry iniative created by Robert Pinsky when he was Poet Laureate.
- Poems for Teaching from the Academy of American Poets--A nice collection of poems available online and elsewhere that are perfect for the discussions we've been having in class. You might also like the broader website for the Academy of American Poets.
Enjoy the poems and be sure to tell me which ones you like!
