Poem in Your Pocket Day

It's Poem in Your Pocket Day! Want to know more? The Academy of American Poets has all the details here. It's a fun way to encourage the everyday use of poetry by choosing a favorite poem, writing or printing it on a small card, and keeping it in your pocket to read and reread at your leisure. For young people, this can be a fun make-and-take activity to save, share, and trade just like your favorite baseball cards! 

For a fun poem to kick off the celebration, here's Janet Wong's poem ABOUT poems for your pocket entitled "Pocket Poems Card." It's from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (Pomelo Books, 2014). 

Another perfect poem for "Poem in Your Pocket Day" is this one, "Hands Say, 'Great Job!'" by Linda Kulp Trout from HOP TO IT: POEMS TO GET YOU MOVING (Pomelo Books, 2020). Not only is it short enough to fit on a tiny business card, it's a poem of affirmation that is fun to read every morning! 

And here is Linda reading her poem aloud to a group of poets gathered to celebrate their poems-- all in HOP TO IT: POEMS TO GET YOU MOVING. 

And for a different twist, look for this new picture book by Chris Tougas, Poem in My Pocket,  illustrated by Josée Bisaillon (Kids Can Press, 2021), "the journey of a young poet's words out into the world, where they join randomly with other words to form funny riffs and puns all over a busy city street."