A virtual celebration for National Poetry Month 2020

“Poetry offers an escape, a distraction, a confidant to whom we can relate in this moment of crisis,” says Library Assistant Megan Brown Olsen. “For example, ‘First Days Back at Work,’ from Elise Patridge’s Chameleon Hours, speaks to the current sense of what may be our near future.” 

Random collection of different words and word-forms on magnetic tiles

Such nimble kneaders, my fingers / used to be. / Will the loaf still rise? // I strain / like an old tug / hauling copses of logs.

April is National Poetry Month. Although in-person events are cancelled, the Academy of American Poets has shared a list of 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month at Home or Online to encourage a collective recognition of the ways in which poetry enhances the world. In the vein of virtual celebration, the Libraries’ Eileen Kelly, Florrie Marks, and Olsen put together a list of volumes and journals of poetry, all digitally accessible via Penn’s Franklin Catalog.

The majority of the nearly 40 titles in this month’s reading list are volumes from university press poetry series.  “As I began perusing our digital poetry resources,” Kelly, head of collection management, explains, “I noticed that a number of titles that sparked my interest were part of one series or another. I thought it would be cool to primarily focus on a few of these by offering one or two titles from each.” 

Read more at Penn Libraries News.