April is National Poetry Month

Write poetry this month, even if it's a few magnetic words on a car. | Poetry (Photo credit: Kimli)

It’s April. The poetic vibes fill the air as our collective minds turn themselves to poetry for National Poetry Month. I haven’t shared anything for Poetry Friday in several weeks, but I’d like to get back in the habit, at least for this month.

I wrote a lot of poetry last fall while taking a course in writing poetry for children and young adults, but I haven’t written much since. I’ve noticed that if I’m reading poetry regularly, the poems flow from my pen (or keyboard) with little effort. But, when I’m not reading poetry regularly, I just get the occasional snippet. And if I don’t sit down right away and work that snippet into a full poem, it just sits in my pretty poetry notebook and goes to waste.

For this Poetry Friday (sponsored this week by Booktalking Children’s Books,) and in honor of National Poetry Month, I’d like to share a short poem I wrote one day after returning, frozen, from a walk.

Long Underwear

Morning walk
Frozen legs
Long johns wanted

~By Amanda L. Webster

It’s not much, but is all I could manage for this week. I’m going to pick up a book of poems from the library this weekend so I can read and try to get inspired to crank out some more poetry by the end of the month. What poetry collections would you recommend to help me get inspired? Please comment below.

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