National Poetry Month Events: Bring out the Muse

April is National Poetry Month and like with any national month worth a mention, there are events to go to celebrate. One celebration is tonight at Lincoln Center in New York City. Oh, how I wish I lived in NYC. There are seats left. I checked. This event, Poetry and the Creative Mind, involves artists, musicians and actors like Glenn Close, Ethan Hawke and Alfre Woodard reading their favorite poems. The list is long.

While you’re listening to poetry at this event, you’re helping raise money for poetry books for New York City ‘s public school classrooms since Poetry and the Creative Minds uses this gala as a fund-raiser for this purpose. For other poetry month events, check out the Academy of American Poets website, Poets.org. There is a calendar for you to type in dates and it will kick out the events around the U.S. There are several.

Here’s a tip for a poet to look for. I saw that Maurice Manning will be in NYC on April 26 at the Regina Peruggi Room at Marymount Manhattan College at 7 p.m. He is wonderful. I heard him read from his collection Bucolics last summer. This collection is just coming out in publication and he’ll be reading from it on this particular evening. Seriously, his poems are great. William Olsen is also reading this night. If you can’t make it to the event but want to hear Manning read, check out this NPR radio story from 2001.

If any of you are looking for poetry to tickle your muse, Poets.org is featuring a poem a day and has oodles of sources. The picture is this month’s poster that you can order for free and also download for your desktop.