April has been National Poetry Month and while you may not have honed your haikus or penned some quirky quatrains there is still time to celebrate!
Thursday, April 29th is Poem in Your Pocket Day, a fantastic way to share your favourite verses!
PIYP is an international movement that encourages folks to invite poetry into their daily interactions. On PIYP Day, select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, coffee shops, street corners, and on social media using the hashtag #PocketPoem.
The National youthLEADarts team challenges you to find some poems that reflect the LEAD values: Listen, Empathize, Act and Drive, or a poem that celebrates someone you consider to be a great leader, carry it in your pocket and share it with someone this Thursday!
Here is one to get you started:
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The League of Canadian Poets at http://www.poets.ca has these suggestions:
- Start a “poems for pockets” giveaway in your school or workplace
- Urge local businesses to offer discounts for those carrying poems
- Post pocket-sized verses in public places
- Memorize a poem
- Start a street team to pass out poems in your community
- Distribute bookmarks with your favorite lines of poetry
- Add a poem to your email footer
- Post lines from your favorite poem on your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr
- Send a poem to a friend.
So, choose a poem that you love…
one that lets your spirit soar.
Keep a copy somewhere near,
find your voice and let it roar!
