National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month has become the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, teachers, librarians, booksellers, publishers, and, of course, poets, marking poetry's important place in our lives. This year the Academy of American Poets celebrates the twenty-fifth anniversary of this annual celebration. National Poetry Month reminds the public that poets have an integral role to play in our culture.

We recently had a Staff Art Show and some teachers contributed poems. We are sharing those poems today along with a list of 30 ways to celebrate the 25th Annual National Poetry Month.

Click HERE to visit www.poets.org and learn 30 ways to celebrate the 25th Annual National Poetry Month.

Two original poems read and written by John Chinworth

YWA (A Song of Their Own) by Glen Ritter

A place

an idea

like electrons

or light

at times

matter

other times

energy

one becoming

the other

then back again

a duality

of education

an infinity

of possibility

for each student

their own orbit

created by a wave

of their own design

tweaking the length

modulating frequency

to discover resonance

from discordance

music from noise

harmony

born from chaos

one song made perfect

void

of a blended choir

sung acapella

with no need

for a symphony

and crashing symbols

at the climax

just a single song

melody and lyrics

perfectly aligned

for each student

their own to

write

their own to

sing

a unique composition

of their own design

ever changing refrains

as weakness

becomes strength

doubt

gives way to confidence

when the student

forgoes songs of the past

and dances

to a song of their own

Poem by Carol Schuster

Winter

Snow

silent sun shines

Melting, melting, dripping, trickling

Rolling off the roof

Scraping plows

Gone

Spring

Chickadees

March morning melodies

Chirping, chiming, singing, tapping

Hiding in the eaves

Pecking holes

Nest

Summer

Bunnies

Lazy lawn lounging

Hopping, hiding, scurrying, running

Racing away from predators

Creating many

Babies

Autumn

Leaves

Crunch crinkle crackle

Cascading, circling, falling, fluttering,

Tumbling off of trees

Leaving branches

Bare

Yearlong

Seasons

Time tumbles travels

Changing, continuing, evolving, cycling

Bringing focus to my environment

Reflecting on

Nature

Journey and Skynight by Joseph Tracy

Oh, young one, you from far away

Above the trees. You who are examining

An aged Knight with a wondrous look

I am Skynight,

I am in failing health,

I am Skynight,

Who is traveling on a journey.

Skillful the knight who found me training,

Skilled Master, and wise the lessons he taught!

Crossing valleys and deserts, in the dead of winter,

Walking over mountains, asking questions of new faces,

New things surround me, and change me to go in new directions,

Wandering a looming journey.

A sparrow chirped as it continued on its own journey,

A crude people,

Unknowing to nobility, and stupid to chivalry,

Spit and yelled at me. A wizard jinxed me.

As a day of my journey ended, it made my journey more treacherous,

I lost my path, my journey worsened, My Master's old words echoed within me

Find your path in your journey of life

Then during the journey, traveling through the forests and wilds

Running, and looking upon elves within the hazy forests,

Goblins of the mountains, Pegasus and Golem,

And frolicking imps in isolate grottoes,

And the dangers of the forest, the roaring of great beasts,

By trickling streams,

Or the gurgling, trickling of heights of falls,

My journey led me.

Descending from the heights of the forest basin and over the plains,

And on a gurgling and sparkling of a tranquil river,

A Silvery Birch,

Farms and grassland, pets and beasts of burden,

Beautiful maidens, energetic youths,

Farmers and pickers, gathers and hunters,

And tough and dirty faces of the workers,

My journey continued. —

Then, with my journey brighter and less perilous,

It led me within a mile of the Island of the Wise

And the place of the Wisest of the Wise, the Archmage;

At the end of a town, a great door,

The door shone with the light of the sun,

The door opened and I had to give my true name to pass, Joseph,

Wizards of all kinds littered the Great Hall,

By the gurgling water of a great fountain Sparrowhawk, the Wisest of the Wise,

My journey was coming to its end,

As I came closer a flash of light sparkled in my eyes,

The Archmage vanished to where I know not,

The wizard who watched over me, and came back from the Land of the Dead;

For out of a storm loud and quickly

A Journey, which began long ago, weakened,

Among the icy sleet and rain, a mountain appeared

Named after the ice and rock of which it was made

My journey, which once was clear, is now clouded

And moving at a slow pace I continued

So not to allow my self to stop because I longed to finish what I had started

The clouds broke into what was less than a mist,

But my journey was still cloaked in danger and mystery.

My journey became larger and more broad;

Bound to my journey, traveling across the world,

It began to age me, and my strength and wit began to weaken and dull;

But still yearning to see the end of what I had started,

My journey took me through

Villages, towns and cities of the world,

it led me passed gray, grim cemeteries

where knights, kings, peasants and nobles lay;

so beyond the reachable reaches of the reachable lands I came

too tired or to old too move, here I fail in health in front of you,

but through my great master skills could he cross,

For he who taught me, as a child, there are no bounds that he could not cross

There at the end of the world my journeys ends and another begins,

The great beyond in my journey’s end.

Not from the sun… the moon… or the stars in the sky!

Oh, young one, you from far away,

Call upon for your friends, your partners and your family, send your fleets of ships