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Happy National Poetry Month! Not only do we offer this month's Poetry Pairing, featuring Kirby Knowlton's "viewfinder" matched with a 2014 article, "Tangled Web of Memories Lingers After a Breakup," by Nick Bilton, but we are also currently running a Found Poem Student Contest as well as an open poetry discussion forum. Join us. To view all of the Poetry Pairings we've published in collaboration with the Poetry Foundation since 2010, and to find activity sheets to help with teaching them, visit our collection.

"In an education landscape that dramatically deemphasizes creative expression in favor of expository writing and prioritizes the analysis of non-literary texts, high school literature teachers have to negotiate between their preferences and the way the wind is blowing. That sometimes means sacrifice, and poetry is often the first head to roll. Yet poetry enables teachers to teach their students how to write, read, and understand any text. Poetry can give students a healthy outlet for surging emotions. Reading original poetry aloud in class can foster trust and empathy in the classroom community, while also emphasizing speaking and listening skills that are often neglected in high school literature classes."

"In an education landscape that dramatically deemphasizes creative expression in favor of expository writing and prioritizes the analysis of non-literary texts, high school literature teachers have to negotiate between their preferences and the way the wind is blowing. That sometimes means sacrifice, and poetry is often the first head to roll. Yet poetry enables teachers to teach their students how to write, read, and understand any text. Poetry can give students a healthy outlet for surging emotions. Reading original poetry aloud in class can foster trust and empathy in the classroom community, while also emphasizing speaking and listening skills that are often neglected in high school literature classes."

"Now, I know that teaching poetry, in many of our minds, is akin to a nonswimmer diving into the deep end, blindfolded. I also know that teaching poetry is often a balancing act between the technical aspects of form and the creative aspects of writing, and that reciting rules and stressing form can stifle creativity or turn students (and teachers) off of poetry. So, I've devised a method that guarantees your students will get on board. It's worked for me in high schools and summer teen programs, in Virginia and Singapore, in libraries and juvenile detention facilities. The truth is, we all know how to swim; we've just forgotten how much we like it. This is a friendly reminder. Want to get your students excited about poetry? Try love."

"Poetry promotes literacy, builds community, and fosters emotional resilience. It can cross boundaries that little else can. April is National Poetry Month. Bring some poetry into your hearts, homes, classrooms and schools. Here are five reasons why we need poetry in our schools."

"The Life of Poetry is a sublime read in its entirety. Complement it with James Dickey on how to enjoy poetry, Edward Hirsch on how to read a poem, and Mary Oliver on the secret of great poetry."

"During my years as an English teacher, camouflage had been easy to come by. I concentrated on 19th-century writers Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and a bit of Edgar Allan Poe. I kept their poetry safely packaged in a crate padded with literary scholarship. But paging through a copy of the New Yorker and seeing a poem by, say, Terrance Hayes left me feeling like a dog trying to use his owner's iPhone. With "The Life of a Poet," this new quarterly series sponsored by the Library of Congress, I'd committed to what felt like an act of guaranteed humiliation: interviewing the most accomplished poets in the country without having the foggiest idea what their poetry meant. In the early years, I can't claim to have attained a great deal of insight, but a funny thing happened in the crucible of my quarterly terror: I stopped reading poetry like a panicked codebreaker. That is, I stopped demanding that every poem yield its concealed meaning, which I suppose is the legacy of outmoded high school English classes. Instead I just read - often aloud - letting the words flow over me and affect me however they could."

"Often poetry is able to say what prose cannot. We've been seeking poets and poetry to provide fresh insights for our programs. We're collecting the results of those efforts here, whether they're from our programs, blogs, or special features."

"In half a decade, the number of U.S. adults who are reading poetry has nearly doubled. That's according to the results of a new survey by the National Endowment for the Arts, which announced Thursday that "as a share of the total U.S. adult population, this poetry readership is the highest on record over a 15-year period.""

"Poetry 180 is designed to make it easy for students to hear or read a poem on each of the 180 days of the school year. Michael Collins selected these poems with high school students in mind. They are intended to be listened to, and he suggests that all members of the school community be included as readers. A great time for the readings would be following the end of daily announcements over the public address system.

"As we discuss and debate what should be considered poetry, my goal is to challenge students to think broadly about poetry and creativity. I want them to be ready to create work that has meaning to them and not be preoccupied with rules or conventions. As the unit continues, here are four strategies and a number of resources that I've found helpful."

"Explore the power of language, look at the world with a fresh sense of wonder, and build reading and writing skills. These video segments, drawn from the PBS Poetry Everywhere series, capture some of the voices of poetry, past and present." Poems can be browsed through categories.

"Inspired by the success of our popular syndicated series Poem-a-Day, we're pleased to present Teach This Poem.  Produced for K-12 educators, Teach This Poem features one poem a week from our online poetry collection, accompanied by interdisciplinary resources and activities designed to help teachers quickly and easily bring poetry into the classroom. "

"If this year's National Poetry Month inspires you to give daily poetry a go in your classroom, maybe even just for the month, consider these four reasons why starting class with a poem each day will rock your world. Just for good measure, I've included a few poem suggestions as well."

Our Found Poetry Contest is our oldest blog tradition, and one we're thrilled to see embraced by teachers across the curriculum. No matter what you teach, consider it an invitation to have your students find and closely-read relevant New York Times articles - and have a little fun while they do it. Everything you need to know is below, with links and tips galore."

"February is Black History Month, and to celebrate the contributions black poets have made, and continue to make, to the richness of American poetry, we asked twelve contemporary black poets from across the country to choose one poem that should be read this month and to tell us a bit about why."

On Thursday, April 14, we'll be conducting a live-moderated discussion of a poem, using these three questions: What's going on in this poem? What do you see, or read, that makes you say that? What more can you find? Just as with our Monday forums, live moderation will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern, although of course students and teachers will be welcome to continue commenting after that point."

"An assignment that focuses on learning gains rather than losses can get the new year off to a good start."

"Below, a piece we first published in 2017 but have updated annually since. It now has over 20 ideas for helping even the most verse averse find something to enjoy."