National Poetry Month Activities

Student Edition April 2023

Dear Poet 2023

Every National Poetry Month we present Dear Poet, a multimedia education project that invites young people in grades five through twelve to write letters in response to poems written and read by award-winning poets. For National Poetry Month in April, students' letters will be published in a booklet on Poets.org alongside poets' responses.

poets.org

Poem In Your Pocket Day

April 27th is national Poem In Your Pocket Day.

Keep a poem in your pocket

And a picture in your head

And you'll never feel lonely

At night when you're in bed 🛌.

-- Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

Your librarian loves poetry. If you would like a poem in your pocket please come by the library to find one or use the online resources in this newsletter.

RhymeZone rhyming dictionary and thesaurus

A comprehensive rhyming dictionary, thesaurus, and brainstorming tool for the English language. Includes dozens of functions to help songwriters, poets, and anyone else in need of a word.

rhymezone.com

Stuck on what to write about?

Here's a creative list of prompts to give you an idea for writing.

5 Tips for Creating Blackout Poetry

We're gonna take a wild guess and say that the first thing you do when you sit down to write a poem is stare at a blank page for a while, and eventually write down a word. Duh. But sometimes thinking of that first word can take a long time!

powerpoetry.org

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Poetry Slam!

Need ideas on hosting an in-school slam? click here. Talk to the Writer's Room about helping organize this.

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Poetry + Science

Science through the lens of poetry! Or vice versa :)

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Get Inspired

Here's a fab list of poems for students.

Don't Like Poetry? Check out this article

Here is a piece of Pernille Pip's article about Found Poetry:

"My students don’t love poetry. I know this because when I told them we would be creating poetry, the cacophony of noise that erupted was not one of joy or happiness. It sounded more like some of them were sick.

But this is exactly why I love teaching poetry in 7th grade. It is a chance to rewrite and reclaim the whole notion of what poetry is. To help students see that they too can create things with meaning without feeling like poetry is just one more thing they are not smart enough to produce."

Visit her blog to view videos of spoken word poets.

Create poetry

Try a different style of poetry:

Theme Poetry (often called Shape poems)

Acrostic Poetry generator

Animate a Haiku

Diamante poetry generator

Where can you find poetry books?

Our library keeps poetry books in the 800 section. Call #'s (those numbers and letters on the spine label of the book) for poetry are usually 808 or 811. You can search our library catalog for poetry at https://705.library.nashville.org There are currently 232 poetry books available for you on our shelves in addition to novels in verse.

Here are some Books in Verse available now at the library

Title Author Call #

Clap when you land Acevedo, Elizabeth F ACE

The poet X Acevedo, Elizabeth F Ace

Booked Alexander, Kwame F ALE

Solo Alexander, Kwame F Ale

Swing Alexander, Kwame F ALE

The crossover Alexander, Kwame F ALE

Iveliz explains it all Arango, Andrea Beatriz F Ara

The Black Flamingo Atta, Dean F ATT

Me dicen GuÌˆero: poemas de un chavo de la frontera Bowles, David F Bow

Chlorine sky Browne, Mahogany L F BRO

Rez dogs Bruchac, Joseph F Bru

Freedom over me: eleven slaves, their lives and dreams brought to life Bryan, Ashley F BRY

Rain rising Comrie, Courtne F COM

Love that dog Creech, Sharon F CRE

Moo Creech, Sharon F CRE

One Crossan, Sarah F CRO

The name she gave me Culley, Betty F CUL

Home is not a country Elhillo, Safia F ELH

Dreams from many rivers: a Hispanic history of the United States told in poems Engle, Margarita F ENG

Golden girl Faruqi, Reem F FAR

Unsettled Faruqi, Reem F FAR

Starfish Fipps, Lisa F FIP

Keesha's house Frost, Helen F FRO

TBH, you know what I mean Greenwald, Lisa F GRE

Bronx masquerade Grimes, Nikki F GRI

Garvey in the dark Grimes, Nikki F GRI

Samira surfs Guidroz, Rukhsanna F GUI

The hope of elephants Hill, Amanda Rawson F HIL

Closer to nowhere Hopkins, Ellen F HOP

Crank Hopkins, Ellen F HOP

Traffick Hopkins, Ellen F HOP

What about Will Hopkins, Ellen F HOP

Impulse Hopkins, Ellen F HOP

In the beautiful country Kuo, Jane F KUO

Living beyond borders: growing up Mexican in America F LIV

Me (Moth) McBride, Amber F MCB

We are all so good at smiling McBride, Amber F MCB

The bluest eye Morrison, Toni F Mor

Twice as perfect OnomÃ©, Louisa F ONO

Becoming Muhammad Ali: a novel Patterson, James F PAT

Ain't burned all the bright Reynolds, Jason F REY

For your eyes only Rocklin, Joanne F ROC

The ghosts of Rose Hill Romero, R. M F ROM

A seed in the sun Salazar, Aida F SAL

Land of the cranes Salazar, Aida F Sal

Amber & Clay Schlitz, Laura Amy F SCH

Saving Red Sones, Sonya F SON

Every last word Stone, Tamara Ireland F STO

Girls like me StVil, Lola F STV

The summer of June Sumner, Jamie F SUM

When we make it Velasquez, Elisabet F VEL

Kent State Wiles, Deborah F WIL

Punching the air Zoboi, Ibi Aanu F ZOB

Remarkably Ruby Libenson, Terri 741.5 LIB

Books in Spanish verse:

Me dicen GuÌˆero: poemas de un chavo de la frontera Bowles, David F Bow

El Crossover Alexander, Kwame F Ale

La rebelión de Rima Marín : el valor en tiempos de tiranía Engle, Margarita F Eng

Tu corazón, mi cielo : el amor en los tiempos del hambre Engle, Margarita F Eng

How about poetry ebooks?

We have 259 electronic sources of poetry books at MackinVia.com

Search for Stratford STEM as the school

Use your employee ID # to login with 2022 as the PIN.

For students, they enter their student ID# and their 4 digit PIN which is their month and day of birth.

Poems written by teens | Teen Ink

From the angry to the sentimental, it's all here: Haiku, sestinas Love poems, free verse and rhyme - We publish poets!

teenink.com

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Sports Poems

Sports Poems for Kids from poets.org

The Sporting Life from poetryoutloud.org

Sports Feel Good Stories poetry

Poetry Soup Best Sports poems

U.S. Latinx Voices in Poetry | Poetry Foundation

In his introduction to El Coro: A Chorus of Latino and Latina Poetry (1997), Martín Espada wrote, "The common expectation is that literature born amid social and economic crisis by nature must be didactic and polemical, obsessed with simplistic affirmations of identity and written in a raw idiom unconcerned with nuance," but that a look at Latino/a poetries "will frustrate that expectation."

poetryfoundation.org