Pick up a poem on Friday

It’s Poem for Your Pocket Day, a national event in celebration of National Poetry Month, which the Academy of American Poets inaugurated in 1996. 

Around Town

April 27, 2023 - 4:32 PM

Banks, retailers and city hall will hand out hundreds of pastel-colored mini-scrolls printed with poems Friday, courtesy of the Iola Public Library.

It’s Poem for Your Pocket Day, a national event in celebration of National Poetry Month, which the Academy of American Poets inaugurated in 1996. 

The poems are to be carried and shared throughout the day. Short traditional verses in themes of spring, love, hope or nature are by such poets as Robert Frost, Sara Teasdale and Emily Dickinson. They’re made available by the Academy of American Poets. 

Poems for Your Pocket concludes the library’s month-long poetry celebration that included a presentation and workshop by poet Dennis Etzel Jr., sponsored by Humanities Kansas; conversation and informal readings by David Malone; and a teen poetry event with performances by Iola High School forensics students.

Over the years, National Poetry Month has become the largest literary celebration in the world, with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers and poets celebrating poetry’s place in our culture.

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