Poetry Month is upon us!
April is a special month for creatives of all stripes, in fact. April 15th (better known in the United States as Tax Day) is the birthday of Leonardo Da Vinci, and is recognized worldwide as National Art Day. April 23rd is the birthday of the English poet William Shakespeare and the Spanish novelist Miguel Cervantes. So those of you who want to tilt at windmills, or compare someone to a summer’s day should have plenty to be excited about!
For me, the beginning of April is a time to reconnect to my roots in poetry and writing. I’ve been writing creatively since I could write, but I often find it to be the most difficult. With drawing, or acting, or even Bead Art there are simple exercises (breathe through your nose, make a line, thread a bead) that allow you to begin the process physically. Writing, often, leads to me staring at a blank screen and that interminable blip, blip, blip of an unmoving cursor, trying to will your imagination into action. With so much else to do, making comics and spreading the joy of creativity at workshops, the act of writing often seems to fall by the wayside.
But then April comes upon us. The roots of April in poetry go farther back even than Shakespeare, to the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
Chaucer’s English, even more than Shakespeare’s, was very different from our own. But I’d invite you to listen to the poem in the original, letting the sound of the words wash over you, and try to taste the spring air, the faint scent of pollen and mildew, feel the sun on your face. And then, when you’re ready, try to put it all into words.
Gently falling rain
Patters on doorside snowdrops
After a long winter.
Your poem doesn’t have to follow a form, like my haiku. It certainly doesn’t need to be in Middle English, like Chaucer’s poem. And it doesn’t need to be about spring–which in this part of the world means snow and sleet as much as flowers and sunshine. But something about knowing that it’s poetry month makes you feel obligated, in a fun way, to take part. Like giving gives in December, or lighting sparklers in July.
And I’d invite you all to take part in Poetry Month. Share your poems with us, and tell us what poetry, and Poetry Month mean to you!
