National Poetry Month attempts to revitalize
what has become an overlooked art, however
poetry is alive and well in the voices and the
actions of the next generation
By Rory Carroll
Oregon Daily Emerald
“April is the cruellest month,”
begins T.S. Eliot’s 1922 postmodern
masterpiece, “The Waste Land.”
But for the past five years, The
Academy of American Poets has
been attempting to revise Eliot’s
spiteful view of April by naming it
National Poetry Month (NPM).
Since 1996, The Academy has
attempted to galvanize popular
interest in poetry during April.
According to its Web site,
www.poets.org, the idea is to
bring together publishers, book
sellers, libraries, schools, and po
ets around the country to cele
brate poetry and its vital place in
American culture. Thousands of
businesses and non-profit organi
zations participate through read
ings, festivals, book displays,
workshops and other events, ac
cording to the site.
“It started as a way to encour
age people to read and write
more poetry,” said Charles Flow
ers, director of promotion and
coordinator of National Poetry
Month. “It has been very success
ful in creating interest in schools
and libraries.”
Flowers is in charge of creating
a resource kit that is distributed
throughout the country to teachers
and bookstores. Ten thousand kits
go out during April, providing
everything from calendars noting
national poetry events to sugges
tions on how to creatively teach
poetry in the classroom.
“We operate under Joseph
Broadsky’s philosophy, ‘Poetry
should be like milk; it should be
delivered to the doorstep,”’
Flowers said.
According to National Poet
Laureate Robert Pinsky, it is diffi
cult to determine the exact rela
tionship between NPM and poet
ry's resurgence into popular
culture.
“It’s hard to say because Na
tional Poetry Month is part of a
general resurgence of interest in
poetry. Which is cause, which is
effect?” Pinsky said, via an e
mail interview. “The Favorite
Poem Project [www.favoritepo
em.org] indicates that more
Americans appreciate poems
than the old stereotype would in
dicate.”
Other proof of poetry’s return to
the mainstream can be found on
the Internet. In February, USA To
day reported that poetiy was the
eighth most quarried term on the
search engine Lycos. Furthermore,
Lycos estimated that more than
228,400 poetry Web sites exist.
Although evidence suggests
that poetry’s resurgence may be
because of mass communication,
Pinsky believes that a recent in
terest in poetry has risen as a re
action to mass communication.
{ i Poetry finds new life
in each new generation.
The roots of poetry are
just that-roots. Some
thing is always going to
grow.
Charles Wright
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
mMmx.m
Today’s information age creates a
need for people to communicate
on a more intimate, human level.
“My own theory is that the
electronic media are beautiful,
elegant and capable of great work
— but they are inherently, by
their nature, on a mass scale,”
Pinsky wrote. “Poetry is inher
ently, by the nature of its medi
um, on an individual scale. Poet
ry’s medium is the reader’s voice.
I think that in reaction to mass
media, we crave a medium that
is by its nature on a human
scale.”
But you don’t need to search
the Net or ask the poet laureate to
see that poetry is coming back
into popularity. Just drop by The
Azle Malinao-Alvarez Emerald
Pulitzer Prizewinning poet Charles Wright reads selections from his work ‘Negative Blue: Selected later Poems’ on April 5.
Buzz Coffeehouse on a Monday
night. Open Poetry Nights have
become a main attraction despite
The Buzz’s short existence and
limited promotion.
“There has been a great
turnout. It is really gaining mo
mentum,” said Melanie Jones,
The Buzz’s programming coordi
nator.
Originally, the reading started
as a two-hour event, but organiz
ers at The Buzz are now extend
ing its hours to accommodate the
considerable interest both per
formers and audiences have
shown on Monday nights.
Freshman Nathan Langston, a
University freshman, said he initi
ated the Open Poetry Night be
cause he believes it’s a necessary
form of expression.
"It’s the opposite of what peo
ple are usually talking about,”
Langston said. “When people are
talking in their everyday lives,
they don’t talk about the impor
tant stuff. They talk about movies
and television, but they don’t
talk about what they are feeling.
It creates an instant community.
It’s like going to church."
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
Charles Wright must have felt
that same sense of community at
his reading on April 5. When
Wright finished reading selec
tions from his new book "Nega
tive Blue: Selected Later Poems,”
Ways to hear and be heard during the month
"CALYX, A Journal of Art and Literature by Women” will host five authors who
will be reading in the Community Room of the Corvallis Public Library at 7
p.m. Friday, April 14. Poets include Elizabeth Woody, Shariiy Smith, Lois
Rosen, Abigail Albrecht and Marilyn Johnson.
Monday Open Poetry Nights: Thg Buzz, EMU 9:00 p.m, . * ...
Sparrowgrass Poetry Forum's new "Poetic Achievement Awards" poetry con
test. Enter one poem of 20 lines or less. Poems entered in the contest will be
considered for publication in the Winter 2001 edition of "Treasured Poems of
America." The grand prize winner will receive $500. Mail poems to Sparrow
grass Poetry Forum, Dept. E, 609 Main St., PO Box 193, Sisterville, WV 26175.
New books of poetry by Poet laureate Robert Pinsky and Charles Wright as
well as the Library of America’s publication of "American Poetry: The Twenti
eth Century, Volumes 1 and 2."
Poem-a-Day in your e-mail during the month of April: Sign up at the Random
House Web site at www.randomhouse.com/knopf/poetry/. The site will auto
matically send poems by the likes of Raymond Carver, Langston Hughes and
Stan Rice.
a long line formed immediately
for signatures. A full house at a
hushed Gerlinger Hall was spell
bound for nearly two hours by
Wright’s calming and provoca
tive verse. Wright believes that
poetry is reborn with each new
generation and that there is a sus
tained need for poetry in Ameri
can society.
“Poetry finds new life in each
new generation,” Wright said.
“The roots of poetry are just that
— roots. Something is always go
ing to grow. No matter how much
they try to kill it, they aren’t
killing it; they are just pruning it.
It is as full blown as ever. Even
though you may think it’s a dy
ing art, vis-a-vis film or the novel
or the Internet, but there are still
people walking around who find
something necessary in the si
lence, the brevity and the truth
poetry can give.”
The author of 14 books, Wright
still considers himself primarily
a teacher and encourages his stu
dents to “read hard.”
“It’s nice to see young people
picking up the banner and charg
ing into the gunfire. It’s a very ex
citing time for young people to
be writing,” Wright said.
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