Celebrate Poetry

Keep A Poem in Your Pocket Day April 27, 2017
The idea is simple: select a poem you love, carry it with you, then share it with co-workers, family, and friends. This event was created by the City of New York in 2002, and became a nationwide festivity in 2009.

In the past, librarians have distributed poems to local hospitals in Charlottesville, Virginia, and wine sellers in San Francisco, California handed out books of short poems to shoppers.
According to NPR,people across the country are celebrating in unique ways this year. A sandwich vendor in Charlottesville, Virginia is putting poems in the sack lunches, rather than the customary chocolate chip cookie. A third-grade teacher in Pennsylvania had her students sew pockets on their shirts since many have no easily accessible pockets.
Poets.org recommends handwriting "some lines on the back of your business cards" or distributing "bookmarks with your favorite immortal lines."

If you're at a loss for which lines you'd like to share, printable poems can be found at Poets.org

Keep A Poem In Your Pocket
by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

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.

The little poem will sing to you
the little picture bring to you
a dozen dreams to dance to you
at night when you’re in bed.

So-
Keep a picture in your pocket
and a poem in your head
and you’ll never feel lonely
at night when you’re in bed.

I am one of Ralph Fletcher’s biggest fans. Over the years I have enjoyed reading his novels, picture and poetry books and books on the writing process. “Twilight Comes Twice” is a children’s poetry picture book. It is written in evocative prose that describes the transition from day to night and back from night to day. Fletcher is a master at creating vivid images using personification and metaphors to explain twilight, dawn and dusk. The illustrations enhance the text.
This book is a great teaching tool for helping those who want to improve their descriptive writing by using metaphors, similes and personification.
The following stanzas are the first four found in the book “Twilight Comes Twice”   

Twice a day
a crack opens
between night and day.
Twice twilight
slips through that crack.

It stays only a short time
while night and day
stand whispering secrets
before they go their
separate ways.

Dusk is the name
for evening twilight.
Dusk gives the signal
for night to be born.

Dusk deepens the colors
Of ordinary things.
Even the common grass
faces on a luster
that makes you
stop to look.

Enjoy Your Thursday