Did you know that April 2021 is the 25th annual celebration of National Poetry Month?
I have to confess in all my years working in a library, 16 this year, I did not. I assumed that we had been celebrating poetry since I first fell in love with it in sixth grade. I spent my children’s elementary school years, about 20 of them, reading and putting together anthologies of favorite poems for school. The truth is in 1995 the Academy of American Poets, along with a group of publishers, booksellers, librarians, literary organizations, poets and teachers convened to discuss the need to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States. Encouraged by the success of Black History Month and Women’s History Month, the group launched the first celebration in 1996.