The Balm of Poetry

Recently I walked with a friend at the Alford Greenway in Tallahassee. If you have never been, you want to go. The walk to the bridge that crosses over the railroad track is less than a quarter of a mile from the parking lot at the end of Pedrick Road, and the tree top view is amazing. Our walk around the lake was filled with woodland beauty, the spectacular show of a gray heron swallowing a large  bream that seemed entirely too big for her pencil- thin neck, and the conversation of two friends lovingly catching up with each other’s lives. 

Barb, who spends part of her time each year in Pittsburgh and part in Tallahassee, was ending her “winter” stint in the sunshine state. We spoke of many things, but one that seemed poignant to me was the growing interest we each have found in poetry. Barb told me about a new poet she had discovered named Padraig O’Tuama, an Irish poet, theologian, and trauma mediator, whom she finds reminiscent of the wonderful Irish poet and priest, John O’Donohue, one of my favorites.  And I shared with her my interest of late in incorporating poetry into worship. I told Barb that perhaps because there is so much confusion in the world, so many words and so little meaning, the concise, focused wisdom of poetry had captured my heart. 

April is National Poetry Month. Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets (AAP) in 1996,  the intent is to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. AAP was founded in 1934 in New York City by a 23-year-old poet, Marie Bullock. Her tireless advocacy of poetry and for poets at all stages of their careers, elevated the art form in our nation during the depression years and beyond.

I recall my mother, who was educated in a one room school house in rural Alabama, reciting poetry when I was a child about a tree “whose hungry mouth is prest against the earth’s sweet flowing breast,” or “Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!) Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,” and wonder if her teacher was inspired by the work of Marie Bullock, who has been called “a brilliantly successful crusader inpoetry’s behalf.”

Today the AAP is the leading champion of American poets, connecting millions of readers with poetry through its website, poets.org, including a digitized poem-a-day program to which you can subscribe, along with numerous other free programs and publications you can find at their website. The resources for educators in K-12, including “Teach This Poem,” a poem a week with guidance to quickly and easily bring poetryinto the classroom, are excellent. 

This is the thirtieth anniversary of National Poetry Month and in our own community several opportunities to celebrate poetry have been or are being offered including: 

• Special features on WFSU, NPR, and PBS channels regarding poetry, and in the public libraries in our community. 

• “Poetry for the Love of It” (PLOI), a chapter of the Florida State Poets Association, which meets on the 2nd and 4th Monday of every month via Zoom from 1:00 - 2:30 pm. For information and to get the ZOOM link, contact PLOI Chairperson Linda Whitefeather at catfeather32301@gmail.com or (850) 300-2363.

• “Big Bend Poets & Writers,” a chartered chapter of the Florida State Poets Association and the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, welcomes those who love poetry and can be reached at:https://bigbendpoets.wixsite.com/mywebsite and on Facebook.

  
  

• “Poetry Night,” an informal night of poetry, on April 28, 2026, from 6:30 – 8:00 pm at Native Spirit Gems and Jewelry, 1240 Thomasville Road, #102 invites you to bring your own beverage and snack as you enjoy hearing or sharing poetry in this cozy setting. 

• Word of South Festival of Literature and Music, April 24-26, 2026, founded in 2015 by Tallahassee attorney and author, Mark Mustian, as a creative interplay of books and music, is amazing and free. It will feature, among other artists, Stephanie Burt, a world-class poet, who is the Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English at Harvard University. Named by the New York Times as one of the most influential poetry critics of her generation, she will be interviewed by writer and FSU professor Andrew Epstein on Saturday, April 25 at 4:15 at the Flamingo Magazine Stage located in the Parkview Event space overlooking Cascades Park. 

• On the” Salvation South Stage” at Word of South (follow signage in the park itself) “remarkable poetry will rub up against protest anthems, old-time dance tunes, and genre-bending roots to see what will appear.” On both Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the artists share a stage and conversation in that “little bowl of land” as Cascades Park has been poetically described. 

Beyond these poetry possibilities, you might read poetry written by the U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant who is appointed annually (with some tenures extended) by the Librarian of Congress. The current poet Laureat, Arthur Sze, is the 25th since its establishment by philanthropist Archer M. Huntington, in 1936, and the first Asian. Sze is known for his clarity and compassion and loving lines like “Boating on this lake, we make an oval track on the surface; and, gazing at rapeseed flowering yellow along the shore, we suspend but do not dissipate the anguish of this world.” I feel the clarity and compassion, don’t you?

Forty-six states and the District of Columbia have Poet Laureates, our own state included, with more awe-inspiring poetry to explore.  At “Word of South” there is an opportunity to hear Alabama Poet Laureate,Jacqueline Trimble, and former Kentucky Poet Laureate, Silas House, among other excellent poets at the Salvation South Stage. 

A fun way to close National Poetry Month is “Poem in Your Pocket Day” on April 30. Started in 2002 during National Poetry Month in New York City, it was adopted in 2008 by the Academy of American Poets, who took the initiative to all fifty states. In 2016, the League of Canadian Poets extended “Poem in Your Pocket Day” to Canada.

Long before I heard of this practice, I felt inspired to print a favorite poem on a business card template and hand it out to the friends my husband and I had gathered for a paddle on the Aucilla River. Written by Irish poet and priest, John O’Donohue, I find the poem’s sleekness elegant, and its intention profound. The poem has become a bit of a mantra for my life these days. “I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.”

On April 30, we are all encouraged to carry copies of a poem we have either written or find meaningful to hand out to those we encounter throughout the day. Perhaps you will feel led to share a poem that has inspired you.

As Barb and I discussed on a lovely walk recently, poetry speaks to us and for us in these troubled times. I pray that you will take some time to read or write poetry to soothe your own spirit and elevate your hope as National Poetry Month encourages.