April is National Poetry Month. Ms. Emily Hodge, the McIntosh media center specialist, decided that the school should be given the opportunity to celebrate poetry through various means. She provided a way for students to create poems, become more educated on the different kinds of poems, and most recently, a way to share poems with other students. For national Poem in Your Pocket Day, Ms. Hodge placed plastic bins with different types of poems around her desk in the library.

Some were contemporary and open sources, which included a special selection of poems from Canadian poets. Whenever students entered the library, Ms. Hodge asked them if they would like to take a poem. The students were to take out the poem and read it to themselves or others throughout the day.

Poetry is a form of literature different from all others. The month of April has been dedicated to helping students appreciate the depth and effort that poets are able to squeeze into a poem. Though many students will study poetry during their time at McIntosh, they are mainly taught to analyze and become immersed in the meaning. By embracing new ways for students to experience poetry, Ms. Hodge has given students an opportunity to see poetry in a new, more meaningful light.

Ms. Hodge said, ” I think poetry is important for students because it is such an intelligent form of literature, and it grows your mind to read it and write it. By making every detail so carefully placed, poets are able to convey meaning in a way that is as profound and deep as it is brief.”

Poetry is often thought of as boring or too deep to understand, but with events such as Poem in Your Pocket Day, students are able to take a poem at face value and just have fun with it.

Sophomore Katherine Mitchell said, “Poets are able to say so much with such profoundness, but it’s really easy to over analyze and take the fun out of reading poetry. I think it’s really cool that the library decided to come up with fun ways to involve students in such an interesting form of literature.”