Since 1996, April has been National Poetry Month.  This is the month that we get to celebrate Poets and poetry; this should also be the month that we all pull out our journals and pens and start composing.

The month long celebration was started by the Academy of American Poets and they even provide a list how we should celebrate.  From their website:

What are the goals of National Poetry Month?

The goals of National Poetry Month are to:

• Introduce more Americans to the pleasures of reading poetry
• Bring poets and poetry to the public in immediate and innovative ways
• Make poetry a more important part of the school curriculum
• Increase the attention paid to poetry by national and local media
• Encourage increased publication, distribution, and sales of poetry books
• Increase public and private philanthropic support for poets and poetry

There is so much to explore and do for Poetry Month. 

You might ask yourself, what are we going to do here at DJR to celebrate?

Well, first of all, we are looking for poetry excerpts.  Please, Please send some in.  Get out your favorite poems, type them up and submit them; we would all love to enjoy them along with you.

Also, we are looking for a some recommendation lists.  We hope you have noticed our wonderful recommendation lists on our homepage. You can submit your favorite collections of poetry and we will create a list of titles to be displayed in April for our DJR readers. 

And you thought you could only celebrate Spring in April!  Start looking through those poetry collections now!