Don’t Forget About Poetry: An Annual Reminder

April is always National Poetry Month and I like to use it as a reminder to all of you that poetry is something many of our patrons could enjoy all year long.  Poetry is one of the oldest and most enduring forms of human storytelling. There is a reason it has stuck around. Why don’t we suggest it more often?

“But Becky,” people often complain to me, “there are no resources to use to identify good poetry except in April. That’s why we don’t suggest it more regularly.”

WRONG. That escape isn’t going to work on me.

One of my favorite resources to stay on top of poetry is The Millions. They post lists of the best poetry coming out in any given month as well as publishing essays on and about poetry, ALL YEAR LONG.  I made it easy for you. Just click here to run a search for everything on The Millions about poetry.

Specifically, their lists of “Must Read” poetry organized by month are excellent for both collection development and RA. They are annotated in a way that we can use to decide if we want to add them to our collections and to book talk to potential readers.

You can also use this link to see everything I have ever tagged poetry here on the blog.

Personally, I have really gotten into horror poetry recently and am currently reading Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare by Stephanie M. Wytovich. 

So use this month as your impetus to get up to speed on poetry. The problem is us. We aren’t thinking of poetry as an option with our patrons. They aren’t thinking about poetry as an option. Many of them would love poetry if we suggested it to them. This is on us. Get up to speed on poetry now and the keep buying and suggesting it all year long.