April Is National Poetry Month: “What Will Your Verse Be?”

I am a fiction writer and an academic scholar, and wouldn’t use the term “poet” to label myself, but I do use poetry to make my prose pop.

Every April – National Poetry Month – for the past three or four years, I have (tried) to participate in Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-A-Day Challenge, which is to write a poem based on a prompt every day of the month.

I say I have “tried” because I usually end up missing a few days (OK, sometimes an entire week), but even if I just try to write a handful of poems during the month, I see a vast improvement in the literary quality of my prose. It challenges me to think differently about language.

I encourage all of you – even those of you who do not identify as “poets” – to do something poetry-related this April. Here are some suggestions:

• Join me and thousands others for the Poem-A-Day Challenge.
• Check out Found Poetry Review’s National Poetry Month project to read poems from their “troop of poetry scouts.”
• Visit the Poetry Foundation’s annual poetry blogging extravaganza that hosts 20+ published poets.
• Follow poetry events taking place on Twitter: @POETSorg.
• Participate in Poem in Your Pocket on April 30.
• See other news and events for National Poetry Month at Poets.org.

If I cannot convince you of the merits of poetry, perhaps Robin Williams in Dead Poet’s Society can:



What will your verse be?

Written by Anne Greenawalt, writer and writing instructor