National Poetry Month: 6th April 1651 L'Amitie: To Mrs. M. Awbrey

6th April 1651 L'Amitie: To Mrs. M. Awbrey
by Katherine Philips

Soule of my soule! my Joy, my crown, my friend!
A name which all the rest doth comprehend;
How happy are we now, whose sols are grown,
By an incomparable mixture, One:
Whose well acquainted minds are not as neare
As Love, or vows, or secrets can endeare.
I have no thought but what's to thee reveal'd,
Nor thou desire that is from me conceal'd.
Thy heart locks up my secrets richly set,
And my breast is thy private cabinet.
Thou shedst no teare but what but what my moisture lent,
And if I sigh, it is thy breath is spent.
United thus, what horrour can appeare
Worthy our sorrow, anger, or our feare?
Let the dull world alone to talk and fight
And with their vast ambitions nature fright;
Let them despise so innocent a flame,
While Envy, pride, and faction play their game:
But we by Love sublim'd so high shall rise,
To pitty Kings, and Conquerours despise,
Since we that sacred union have engrost,
Which they and all the sullen world have lost.

National Poetry Month: April Is The Saddest Month

April Is The Saddest Month
by William Carlos Williams

There they were
stuck
dog and bitch
halving the compass

Then when with his yip
they parted
oh how frolicsome

she grew before him
playful
dancing and
how disconsolate

he retreated
hang-dog
she following
through the shrubbery

All Reading is Good Reading

According to Neat-O-Rama contributer, Ms. Cellania:

In 1931, a schoolboy wrote a fan letter to his favorite author, Edgar Rice Burroughs. It said, in part:

I am a fourteen year old boy and am a low Junior in High School. Today at school our teacher was discussing “good literature.” I asked if Edgar Rice Burroughs was all right for a book report. I knew she’d say “no” (teachers always do) but I didn’t expect her to lecture to the class for the whole period about how terrible your books were!

The author of the Tarzan novels wrote back, in part:

My stories will do you no harm. If they have helped to inculcate in you a love of books, they have done you much good. No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, it is good literature, or its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature.

Which explains why I bought the Twilight books for my youngest daughter. The 14-year-old boy who wrote the letter was Forrest J. Ackerman, who grew up to coin the term “sci-fi”. Ackerman was a film producer, actor, and the editor of the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, and made a name as the biggest science fiction fan ever.

Tuesday Trivia

1. While at a party in Panama, which author choked on a toothpick which caused an inflammation of his abdominal passage and killed him?
2. What world-famous poem was originally titled “He Do the Police in Different Voices”?
3. Where did Aldous Huxley borrow the title Brave New World from?
4. Which American poet, novelist, and children's author was the daughter of a biology professor at Boston University well known for his book about bumble bees?
5. Which German-born children’s author and illustrator came to New York with only $45 in his pocket and began his writing career by landing a graphic designer position in the promotion department of The New York Times?

In 2004, which world-renowned author’s daughter discovered a 5,000-word story entitled "The Incident of the Dog's Ball" in the attic of her home?



Agatha Christie’s daughter found this 5,000 word story in 2004, and had it published in Britain in September 2009 by The Strand Magazine.




Which young adult writer is the brother of the man who invented the sole of Sperry Top-Sider shoes?



Armstrong Sperry. His older brother, Paul, invented the sole of the Sperry Top-Sider.




Which American fiction writer began his writing career while working as a pencil sharpener wholesaler in 1911?



Edgar Rice Burroughs




Which young adult author did not begin writing children’s literature until the age of 47?



Theodore Taylor, born in 1921 did not begin writing books for young adults until 1968.




Under nom de plume Ashley Cooper, which American author wrote a long-running column for the Charleston Post Courier until 1993?



Frank Gilbreth, Jr.

National Poetry Month: Calmly We Walk Through This April's Day

Calmly We Walk Through This April's Day
by Delmore Schwartz

Calmly we walk through this April's day,
Metropolitan poetry here and there,
In the park sit pauper and rentier,
The screaming children, the motor-car
Fugitive about us, running away,
Between the worker and the millionaire
Number provides all distances,
It is Nineteen Thirty-Seven now,
Many great dears are taken away,
What will become of you and me
(This is the school in which we learn...)
Besides the photo and the memory?
(...that time is the fire in which we burn.)

(This is the school in which we learn...)
What is the self amid this blaze?
What am I now that I was then
Which I shall suffer and act again,
The theodicy I wrote in my high school days
Restored all life from infancy,
The children shouting are bright as they run
(This is the school in which they learn . . .)
Ravished entirely in their passing play!
(...that time is the fire in which they burn.)

Avid its rush, that reeling blaze!
Where is my father and Eleanor?
Not where are they now, dead seven years,
But what they were then?
No more? No more?
From Nineteen-Fourteen to the present day,
Bert Spira and Rhoda consume, consume
Not where they are now (where are they now?)
But what they were then, both beautiful;

Each minute bursts in the burning room,
The great globe reels in the solar fire,
Spinning the trivial and unique away.
(How all things flash! How all things flare!)
What am I now that I was then?
May memory restore again and again
The smallest color of the smallest day:
Time is the school in which we learn,
Time is the fire in which we burn.

National Poetry Month: An April Day

An April Day
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When the warm sun, that brings
Seed-time and harvest, has returned again,
'T is sweet to visit the still wood, where springs
The first flower of the plain.

I love the season well,
When forest glades are teeming with bright forms,
Nor dark and many-folded clouds foretell
The coming-on of storms.

From the earth's loosened mould
The sapling draws its sustenance, and thrives;
Though stricken to the heart with winter's cold,
The drooping tree revives.

The softly-warbled song
Comes from the pleasant woods, and colored wings
Glance quick in the bright sun, that moves along
The forest openings.

When the bright sunset fills
The silver woods with light, the green slope throws
Its shadows in the hollows of the hills,
And wide the upland glows.

And when the eve is born,
In the blue lake the sky, o'er-reaching far,
Is hollowed out and the moon dips her horn,
And twinkles many a star.

Inverted in the tide
Stand the gray rocks, and trembling shadows throw,
And the fair trees look over, side by side,
And see themselves below.

Sweet April! many a thought
Is wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed;
Nor shall they fail, till, to its autumn brought,
Life's golden fruit is shed.

National Poetry Month: Song of a Second April

Song Of A Second April
by Edna St. Vincent Millay

April this year, not otherwise
Than April of a year ago,
Is full of whispers, full of sighs,
Of dazzling mud and dingy snow;
Hepaticas that pleased you so
Are here again, and butterflies.

There rings a hammering all day,
And shingles lie about the doors;
In orchards near and far away
The grey wood-pecker taps and bores;
The men are merry at their chores,
And children earnest at their play.

The larger streams run still and deep,
Noisy and swift the small brooks run
Among the mullein stalks the sheep
Go up the hillside in the sun,
Pensively,—only you are gone,
You that alone I cared to keep.

New Prestwick House SMShakespeare™ “Text”books Revolutionize Student Learning

This week, Prestwick House is proud to announce a new line of products specifically tailored to 21st century students. The new SMShakespeare™ series features some of Shakespeare’s greatest plays and boasts a unique feature that sends the Bard’s text directly to students’ cellular phones via SMS.

Cellular phone use in education is becoming increasingly more mainstream with tools such as Google SMS, which allows students to search for information via text message; programs like Text2Teach™, which help teachers monitor student attendance; and applications like MobileTutor™, TouchMaths™, and mDictionary™, which fill a variety of other needs in the classroom.

Business Week reporters Cathie Norris and Elliot Soloway suggest, “Students are already bringing these technologies to school; we just need to allow the kids to bring them out of hiding and use them in their classroom for curricular purposes… rather than spending a bundle on building a sophisticated wireless infrastructure and another bundle on maintaining it, a school could make use of cell-phone computers and the telecoms' existing wireless infrastructure for Internet access.”

In keeping with traditional text message lingo, Prestwick House’s new SMShakespeare™ line takes the text of each of the Bard’s plays and shortens it for increased readability in the SMS medium. From Hamlet’s famous “2 b or not 2 b” soliloquy to Juliet’s beautiful lament “a @->--- by ne other name” to Macbeth’s “2mrw n 2mrw n 2mrw” speech, all of the most popular plays are represented.

“IDK how tchrs will feel re: txt as a med, but stdnts r luvin it! Its a gr8 way 2 reach stdnts,” texts Prestwick House General Manager, Keith Bergstrom. “IMHO txt is srsly more effective than F2F teaching. Thx 2 SMS, ppl can read Shakespeare ne where n form a POV b4 l8tr discussion w/o heavy books."

In addition to Shakespeare’s text, students will receive periodic picture messages containing illustrations of important scenes as depicted by LOLCats™ to increase understanding. Similarly, tweeted scene summaries and study guides will be available via Twitter’s SMS feature, and students will have the option of becoming a fan of “Pr3stw1ck Pwns SMS” on Facebook to get the most recent software updates, Shakespeare memes, and various other LOLs to increase retention of Shakespeare’s works.

To order Prestwick House’s new SMSShakespeare™ line, visit PrestwickHouse.com today for more information.

Literary April Fool's Day Prank

According to the Museum of Hoaxes:

In February 1708 a previously unknown London astrologer named Isaac Bickerstaff published an almanac in which he predicted the death by fever of the famous rival astrologer John Partridge.

According to Bickerstaff, Partridge would die on March 29 of that year. Partridge indignantly denied the prediction, but on March 30 Bickerstaff released a pamphlet announcing that he had been correct: Partridge was dead. It took a day for the news to settle in, but soon everyone had heard of the astrologer's demise. Thus, on April 1st Partridge was woken by a sexton outside his window who wanted to know if there were any orders for his funeral sermon. Then, as Partridge walked down the street, people stared at him as if they were looking at a ghost or stopped to tell him that he looked exactly like someone they knew who was dead. As hard as he tried, Partridge couldn't convince people that he wasn't dead.

Bickerstaff, it turned out, was a pseudonym for the satirist Jonathan Swift. His prognosticatory practical joke upon Partridge worked so well that the astrologer finally was forced to stop publishing his almanacs, because he couldn't shake his reputation as the man whose death had been foretold.

Celebrate National Poetry Month: FAQs from Poets.org

To help prepare you to celebrate the cruelest month this April, Poets.org has compiled a helpful FAQ sheet!

What is National Poetry Month? National Poetry Month is a month-long, national celebration of poetry established by the Academy of American Poets. The concept is to widen the attention of individuals and the media—to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our complex poetic heritage, and to poetry books and journals of wide aesthetic range and concern. We hope to increase the visibility and availability of poetry in popular culture while acknowledging and celebrating poetry’s ability to sustain itself in the many places where it is practiced and appreciated.

Who started it? The Academy of American Poets has led this initiative from its inception in 1996 and along the way has enlisted a variety of government agencies and officials, educational leaders, publishers, sponsors, poets, and arts organizations to help.

When is National Poetry Month? April. Every year since 1996.

Why was April chosen for National Poetry Month? In coordination with poets, booksellers, librarians, and teachers, the Academy chose a month when poetry could be celebrated with the highest level of participation. Inspired by the successful celebrations of Black History Month (February) and Women's History Month (March), and on the advice of teachers and librarians, April seemed the best time within the year to turn attention toward the art of poetry—in an ultimate effort to encourage poetry readership year-round.

What are the goals of National Poetry Month? The goals of National Poetry Month are to:

• Highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets
• 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

Shouldn't we celebrate poetry all year round, not just in April? By all means, yes! We encourage the year-round, life-long reading of poetry. National Poetry Month is just one of the many programs of the Academy of American Poets. To keep the celebration going, consider becoming a member of the Academy and receive special benefits and privileges year round, listen to a few of our poetry audio clips, or attend a poetry event in your area.

How does the Academy celebrate National Poetry Month?

• Posters: Each year the Academy creates and distributes nearly 200,000 official NPM posters, which are mailed for free to teachers, librarians, and booksellers nationwide.
• Events: The Academy presents several special events and readings in April. Some of our special events include a 10 Years/10 Cities reading series and our star-studded annual Poetry & The Creative Mind.
• Publicity: To ensure that poetry gains national attention in the media each April, the Academy mails several thousand press releases and media kits each year to editors and journalists across the country. As a result, thousands of articles about poetry appear in newspapers, magazines, and online media outlets. The Academy also acts as the official clearing house for news and information about National Poetry Month.
• Inspiration & Guidance: The Academy offers a plethora of practical resources for celebrating NPM, including tips for teaching poetry during April, creating a poetry book display in your bookstore or library, presenting a poetry reading or contest, and much more.

Do organizations need permission to participate? No. Just as you don't need anyone's permission to celebrate Black History Month or Women's History Month, you do not need permission to become part of National Poetry Month.

What can I do to celebrate NPM? There are thousands of ways to celebrate. We've developed a list of 30 to get you started—one for every day in April.

How can teachers become more involved? In addition to free poetry lesson plans and curriculum units, the Academy provides tip sheets for teachers, including ideas and success stories from past years. If you're a teacher with a success story you'd like to share, email us and we may post your story on Poets.org.

How can librarians become more involved? The Academy provides tip sheets for librarians, including ideas for book displays, programs and discussions, collection development, outreach, and marketing, as well as success stories from past years. If you're a librarian with a success story you'd like to share, email us and we may post your story on Poets.org.

How can booksellers become more involved? The Academy provides tip sheets for booksellers, including ideas for marketing, merchandising, and special events, as well as success stories from past years. If you're a bookseller with a success story you'd like to share, email us and we may post your story on Poets.org.

Does it cost anything to celebrate National Poetry Month? Not necessarily. A school or library that has an already scheduled program for April can simply offer it under the umbrella of National Poetry Month. The Academy offers free poetry lesson plans, which could be taught in April. A radio station could develop a program for April from its own audio library, without incurring additional cost. Finally, all the poems, essays, and audio clips on Poets.org are available for your personal use and enjoyment free of charge.

Can other organizations use the NPM logo? Yes. Any school, library, bookstore, or nonprofit organization can use the NPM logo to celebrate National Poetry Month.

Do I need permission to use the NPM logo? No. Any school, library, bookstore, or nonprofit organization can use it. Please submit an event listing for your NPM program, and we will include it in our national events calendar.

How can I obtain a copy of the National Poetry Month poster? To request copies of posters, use our handy online order form. To view images of all our posters, old and new, visit our NPM poster gallery.

How can I support National Poetry Month? Donations in support of National Poetry Month are much needed and greatly appreciated. Simply designate your donation for National Poetry Month, and you'll help the Academy support the celebration of poetry in April.