Poem in Your Pocket Day • National Poetry Month

Happy Poem in Your Pocket Day! 

Print this poem to share with friends and family, and keep a copy of it in your pocket. Thanks to the Academy of American Poets for sharing their poem with us, and visit the website for others to read and share.



Making History 

Blue and White Orlon Snowflake Sweater, Blue Snowpants, Red Galoshes 
—Smoky Hill AFB, Kansas, 1955 

Somebody took a picture of a class 
standing in line to get polio shots, 
and published it in the Weekly Reader. 
We stood like that today. And it did hurt. 
Mrs. Liebel said we were Making History, 
but all I did was sqwunch up my eyes and wince. 
Making History takes more than standing in line 
believing little white lies about pain. 
Mama says First Negroes are History: 
First Negro Telephone Operator, 
First Negro Opera Singer At The Met, 
First Negro Pilots, First Supreme Court Judge. 
That lady in Montgomery just became a First 
by sqwunching up her eyes and sitting there.

by Marilyn Nelson

courtesy poets.org

Poem in Your Pocket Day: Invictus — National Poetry Month

It's Poem in Your Pocket Day! Print the poem below and carry it around in your pocket. Pull it out from time to time, re-read it, think about it, share it with a friend, discuss it with a colleague.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

      Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

      I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

      Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul.

by W.E. Henley

courtesy The Poetry Foundation

The Lake Isle of Innisfree — Poem in Your Pocket Day during National Poetry Month!

Print this poem and stick it in your pocket for Poem in Your Pocket Day!

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping
     slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket
     sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

by W. B. Yeats 

courtesy poets.org

Poem in Your Pocket: Emma Lazarus to Print and Carry!

Here's a lovely poem from the American Academy of Poets. Print it and stuff it in your pocket, then print an extra for a friend.

Long Island Sound

I see it as it looked one afternoon
In August,-by a fresh soft breeze o'erblown.
The swiftness of the tide, the light thereon,
A far-off sail, white as a crescent moon.
The shining waters with pale currents strewn,
The quiet fishing-smacks, the Eastern cove,
The semi-circle of its dark, green grove.
The luminous grasses, and the merry sun
In the grave sky; the sparkle far and wide,
Laughter of unseen children, cheerful chirp
Of crickets, and low lisp of rippling tide,
Light summer clouds fantastical as sleep
Changing unnoted while I gazed thereon.
All these fair sounds and sights I made my own.

 

by Emma Lazarus

courtesy poets.org

Poem in Your Pocket!

Here is a poem for your pocket for this special, only-once-a-year-event. Which was yesterday. The same day as Shakespeare's baptism. (Coincidence?)

Anyway, enjoy!

Hurry!

Hurry! says the morning,

don't be late for school!

Hurry! says the teacher,

hand in papers now!

Hurry! says the mother,

supper's getting cold!

Hurry! says the father,

time to go to bed!

Slowly, says the darkness,

you can talk to me.

by Eve Merriam

courtesy of Pocket Poems

Get Ready for Poem in Your Pocket Day

Poem in Your Pocket Day is April 29. Are you ready?

Here's one to get you started (and you can check out her book Pocket Poems to see an entire book of fun, sometimes goofy, often profound poems for your pockets).

Pocket Poem

With a poem in your pocket

and

a pocket in your pants

you can rock with new rhythms.

You can skip.

You can dance.

And wherever you go,

and whatever you do,

that poem in your pocket is going there, too.

You cuold misplace your homework.

You could lose your left show.

But that poem in your pocket will be part of you.

And nothing can take it.

And nothing can break it.

That poem in your pocket

becomes

part of...

YOU!

by Bobbi Katz

Poem in Your Pocket Day is Today!

Jot down this poem and put it in your pocket, like my friend Beth Field does.  (However, I suspect she has memorized it, the Peety-Swie she is!)

Runny's Rig Bomance

Runny had a firlgriend,

Her name was Sunny Bue.

He called her nots of licknames,

Like "kitchy-Itchy Koo."

Sometimes he called her "Boney-Hun,"

And sometimes "Dovey Lear,"

But he only called her "Peety-Swie"

When no one else could hear.

- Shel Silverstein

What's your pocket poem?

Ramping Up for Poem in Your Pocket Day

A pocket poem can be short, small, compact — or can be as long as you want it to be.  (I've seen some big pockets in my time.)  It can be a poem you carry in your head, others you slip into your checkbook (because when you're writing a check, one needs the salve of a poem).  


I hang a couple on my walls at work.  


I also recite this one to David whenever I'm feeling clever:


'Twas in a restaurant they met,
Romeo and Juliet.
He had no cash to pay the debt
so Romeo'd what Juliet.


Here are a couple from my friend Beth Field.

I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. 

Some come from ahead and some come from behind.

But I've brought a big bat and I'm ready you see.

Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me.

- Dr. Seuss

Shake and shake
The catsup bottle.
None will come,
And then a lot'll.
- Richard Armour



What's your favorite pocket poem? E-mail me and receive a book of poetry for your effort!

Check back on April 29, Poem in Your Pocket Day, for a few more pocket poems!

Choose a Poem for Your Pocket

Here's one I wrote ages ago. It still amuses me. You can use it for your Pocket Poem, if you would like.

Or, find one and share it with me.

Just go find one and carry it with you. Read it from time to time. Maybe even give it away to someone who looks like s/he needs it. Poem in Your Pocket Day is April 30, so be ready!

Until then, enjoy this little limerick.

There once was a wise cat named Mao
Who said to herself, "Anyhow,
I will not make a sound
That is not as profound
As Lao Tse's poetical Tao."

Poem in Your Pocket Day!

Today is Poem in Your Pocket Day, and I'm glad to share my favorite pocket poem — though I confess, it's more a "put on your wall and make everyone read it there in the office while you watch" poem.

Some days, it really is everything, the wet green stalk of the field on the other side of the road. Would you risk everything to reach your wet green stalk? (I know how it sounds, people, but work with me!)

Small Frog Killed on the Highway

Still,
I would leap too
Into the light,
If I had the chance.
It is everything, the wet green stalk of the field
On the other side of the road.
They crouch there, too, faltering in terror
And take strange wing. Many
Of the dead never moved, but many
Of the dead are alive forever in the split second
Auto headlights more sudden
Than their drivers know.
The drivers burrow backward into dank pools
Where nothing begets
Nothing.

Across the road, tadpoles are dancing
On the quarter thumbnail
Of the moon. They can't see,
Not yet.

by James Wright
(courtesy Elite Skills Classics)

Poem in Your Pocket from Poets.org

April is National Poetry Month, and I'm sure you're perusing your tomes for those special poems to share with me and the other poetry lovers in your life.

Well, don't forget the great resources on the Web — including Poets.org, which has just launched Poem in Your Pocket. Not only can you carry a single poem (like the one you have stored in your wallet right now) (wait, that's me!), but also can sign up for Poem-a-Day to receive a poem daily by e-mail.

For those with BlackBerrys or iPhones, that literally is a poem in your pocket.

Thank you to Rob for sharing this news flash with me. His poem would be The Who song "In My Head." (Yes, lyrics count; think "Frankie and Johnny.")

To whet your appetite, enjoy this poem -- it makes me happy -- and a bonus haiku below.


Words from the Front

We don’t look as young
as we used to
except in the dim light
especially in
the soft warmth of candlelight
when we say
in all sincerity
You’re so cute
and
You’re my cutie.
Imagine
two old people
behaving like this.
It’s enough
to make you happy.

by Ron Padgett
From How to Be Perfect © 2007


and a bonus haiku....

World
the morning paper
harbinger of good and ill
- - I step over it

by Mike McCroskey
from HAIKU for PEOPLE