You Can Participate In National Poetry Month

By Dr. Marciene Mattleman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Jack and Jill went up a hill and Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall and had a great fall. The first poems children are likely to hear and the first they may read to their own children generations later.

Poetry is best shared; it's not only the rhyme, because some poems don't rhyme, it's the rhythm.

In 1996, the Academy of American Poets inaugurated National Poetry Month every April when schools, libraries, booksellers, publishers and poets nationally celebrate the important place poetry plays in our culture.

If you like ballads, rocks and poetry slams, you do like poetry…so go to Poets.org and join 90,000 subscribers on an email list to read an original never-before published poem by an American poet Monday through Friday each week.

Thursday, April 30, is National Poem in Your Pocket Day. Choose a poem, share it with people you meet and be sure to share your poem selection on Twitter by using the hashtag #pocketpoem and get more ideas on the web.