"No Matter What" by Laura Mucha

And as an extra bonus, here is a video of the poet herself reading the poem out loud-- in London! Thank you, Laura Mucha!

"Walking" by Diane Mayr

Here is the first in my month-long series of poem videos created by my TWU graduate students who are studying poetry for children. Each student chose a poem from HOP TO IT: POEMS TO GET YOU MOVING (because the poets in this anthology give their permission for poetry promo) and made an original video interpreting their chosen poem. It's always so fun to see what they come up with. Here's our first installment-- one of my favorites! 

Mary Lee is hosting our Poetry Friday fun this week. Head on over to A Year of Reading RIGHT NOW for lots more poetry wonderfulness! 

Happy National Poetry Month

April is officially National Poetry Month! WOO HOO!
Launched by the Academy of American Poets (poets.org) in April 1996, National Poetry Month "reminds the public that poets have an integral role to play in our culture and that poetry matters. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K–12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, families, and, of course, poets, marking poetry's important place in our lives." In 2021, we celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of this annual celebration!

Every April, I try to post DAILY in celebration of this special month. I often involve my students in these blog posts to help uplift their wonderful work. This year, they each created a small poem movie-- taking a poem from HOP TO IT: POEMS TO GET YOU MOVING (since these poets give their permission)-- and interpreting the poem through images, live action, music, sound effects, and voice over. I think you will really enjoy them-- and they provide a wonderful model of a project kids themselves might try as they explore poetry and technology.

I'll also intersperse videos of the poets themselves reading their poems aloud-- always fun to hear a poem in the voice of the poet! Here is just one to kick off our poem-filled month. This is "Chair Dancing" by Xelena González. Watch as she gets us all dancing in our chairs! 

Look for more poem videos and poet readings coming every day. Nearly 50 poets participated in this fun poetry party and poem reading celebration. More to come!