April is National Poetry Month, and to celebrate one of the oldest and most beloved forms of art, the ETSU Sherrod Library is hosting events and festivities for students. In addition to having a dedicated display, Sherrod Library will have have an open poetry reading on Tuesday, April 25 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
If you want to enjoy the art of poetry and join in on the festivities from the comfort of your own dorm or home, there is an infinite amount of wonderful and fascinating poems that await. Here’s a list of just a few great poems that you can read in under five minutes.
“Ginger” by Adrienne Su
Recently, a featured writer at ETSU’s own Spring Literary Festival, Adrienne Su is a renowned poet whose works have appeared in several editions of the “Best American Poetry” anthology. Her poem “Ginger” is from her most recent book “Peach State: Poems.” Like most of the other poems in that collection, “Ginger” focuses on the role that food and spices play in our daily lives, from seeing their names fleetingly in a cookbook, to the larger cultural influence they carry.
“The Kingfisher” by Mary Oliver
There are few poetry enthusiasts in the world who don’t enjoy Mary Oliver. Oliver was an American poet who won the Pulitzer Prize and whose work is largely inspired by nature. She has many well known poems, including “Wild Geese” and “The Swan.” But her poem “The Kingfisher” truly captures the essence of nature’s beauty and life’s fleetingness as she asks, “how could there be a day in your whole life that doesn’t have its splash of happiness?”
“On Disappearing” by Major Jackson
Major Jackson is a professor at Tennessee’s own Vanderbilt University. He is the author of six books of poetry and has had his work published in “The New Yorker” and “American Poetry Review.” His poem “On Disappearing” is the longest on this list and focuses on the prevalence of death and the implications it has for human life. In the opening lines, Jackson writes, “I have not disappeared. The boulevard is full of my steps. The sky is full of my thinking.”
“A Noiseless Patient Spider” by Walt Whitman
No poetry list would be complete without one of America’s greatest poets. Walt Whitman is often referred to as “the father of free verse,” with his influence on American poetry making a lasting impact on the plethora of poets that succeeded him. “A Noiseless Patient Spider” is a short lyric poem that uses the metaphor of a spider spinning its web to highlight the connections between the individual self and the larger world. For those looking to delve into the world of poetry, there is no greater place to start.
Celebrate National Poetry Month by reading some of these poems, going to Sherrod Library’s events in April or even by writing poetry of your own. All of these poems can be found online at Poetry Foundation’s website: poetryfoundation.org.
