2013 poster for National Poetry Month by Jessica Helfand.

Today is April 1st. All around the world, people will celebrate today with jokes and pranks. For us writers, April 1st marks a different celebration: a celebration of poetry.

National Poetry Month was established in 1996 by The Academy of American Poets as a way to draw attention to poetry. Today, a range of government agencies, leaders, educators, publishers, poets, and arts organizations participate in National Poetry Month.

Whether you read poetry, write poetry, or simply want to show your support to poets and the literary community, April is a great time to get involved.

There are many ways to participate, and we’ll get to those shortly. First, let’s find out what National Poetry Month is all about.

What is National Poetry Month?

The Academy of American Poets describes National Poetry Month as follows:

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.

Let’s Honor Poetry!

There are countless ways you can honor and celebrate poetry throughout the month of April. The Academy of American Poets has suggested 30 ways to celebrate National Poetry Month. Here are a few more:

• Share a poem: send a poem to a loved one (or send one poem a day throughout the month). Write your own poem or share one of your favorites. You can also find poetry online and share it on your website or via social media.
• Speaking of social media, use it to promote poets, poetry, and National Poetry Month.
• Check out the poetry writing tag here at Writing Forward, where you’ll find several dozen posts filled with poetry prompts, exercises, resources, and tips.

Here at Writing Forward,we’ll be celebrating National Poetry month with a few new posts on poetry. I’ll also share poetry-related articles via our social media accounts throughout the month.

I hope you’ll join me in celebrating National Poetry Month. How will you honor poetry this April?