How students use poetry to cope with stress of school, love lives
Andrew Denning | Contributing Photographer
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Cody Benbow’s poem ideas come to him at random. A bus ride to campus, whether that be from South Campus or Rochester, can inspire his future pieces.
“It’s really a good way to kind of just distill all the chaos going on in your mind, especially over the past year,” said Benbow, a Syracuse University junior.
April is National Poetry Month, and during the pandemic some Syracuse University students have turned to poetry to heal and express their emotions about topics like stress, school or their love lives. Some poetry professors encourage their students to use poetry to discover something about themselves or the world around them.
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The Academy of American Poets officially designated April as National Poetry Month beginning in 1996. This annual celebration highlights the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets while marking poetry’s important place in our culture and everyday lives.
Since its founding in 1915, Knopf has published some of the finest poets of all time. You are invited to celebrate this tradition by signing up for Knopf’s Poem-A-Day program. Each day throughout April, Knopf e-mails out a free poem by a new or established poet drawn from the imprint’s extensive list of books.
Some of the featured poets include time-honored favorites such as James Merrill, Robin Coste Lewis, Kevin Young, Sandra Cisneros, and Langston Hughes, as well as up-and-coming voices like: Catherine Cohen, Jonah Mixon-Webster, Richie Hofmann, and Tomás Q. Morín.