Celebrate National Poetry Day, October 15!
WyoPoets is a member of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS). Part of our duties is to encourage our members to recognize, promulgate, and celebrate October 15, National Poetry Day, each year.
A History of National Poetry Day
By Tom Spence
Poets have a day! Back in the ‘40s, in the century which some of us still remember, Ohio poets organized a day to celebrate poets and poetry. Other states got on board and by 1975, October 15th International Poetry Day (promoted by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, NSFPS, of which WyoPoets is a member) was celebrated in 50 states and 40 foreign countries. In 1982, a National Poetry Day proclamation was passed in the U. S. Senate. The House of Representatives managed to pass a Mule Appreciation resolution for the day, but no poetry day citation, which tells a lot about our representatives, then and probably now.
Without disparaging the hybrid equine, WyoPoets by-laws say nothing about mules, but commit the organization to promote the celebration poetry on October 15.
Every WyoPoets member should assist in his or her own way on October 15th. Ask your local newspaper and the city council to officially declare the day in your town as National Poetry Day. Have a poetry reading, dress up like your favorite poet, offer your services in a school to read or conduct poetry workshops; before ordering at the drive-in, recite your favorite limerick or haiku; request a slot on a local radio station and do a reading before the weather report; in front of the soup kitchen or your favorite diner, wear a sandwich board: “Will read poetry for food”—it’s always a good way to cadge lunch. Give it your best shot!
April is National Poetry Month. This poetry celebration is the function of the The Academy of American Poets. WyoPoets is not sectarian. We support National Poetry Month too!
“Life without poetry is like missing a kiss, and then the squeeze—the first is awful, the second unconscionable.” (Warren Wendover).
Poets have a day! Back in the ‘40s, in the century which some of us still remember, Ohio poets organized a day to celebrate poets and poetry. Other states got on board and by 1975, October 15th International Poetry Day (promoted by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, NSFPS, of which WyoPoets is a member) was celebrated in 50 states and 40 foreign countries. In 1982, a National Poetry Day proclamation was passed in the U. S. Senate. The House of Representatives managed to pass a Mule Appreciation resolution for the day, but no poetry day citation, which tells a lot about our representatives, then and probably now.
Without disparaging the hybrid equine, WyoPoets by-laws say nothing about mules, but commit the organization to promote the celebration poetry on October 15.
Every WyoPoets member should assist in his or her own way on October 15th. Ask your local newspaper and the city council to officially declare the day in your town as National Poetry Day. Have a poetry reading, dress up like your favorite poet, offer your services in a school to read or conduct poetry workshops; before ordering at the drive-in, recite your favorite limerick or haiku; request a slot on a local radio station and do a reading before the weather report; in front of the soup kitchen or your favorite diner, wear a sandwich board: “Will read poetry for food”—it’s always a good way to cadge lunch. Give it your best shot!
April is National Poetry Month. This poetry celebration is the function of the The Academy of American Poets. WyoPoets is not sectarian. We support National Poetry Month too!
“Life without poetry is like missing a kiss, and then the squeeze—the first is awful, the second unconscionable.” (Warren Wendover).
