Got Poem?

Posted by Tom

It’s National Poetry Month once again, and as usual, Seattle and its libraries are awash in poetry events.

The Northeast Branch is hosting its annual all-ages poetry contest, in which everyone is invited to submit a poem at any time in April, and potentially win prizes (including the Wedgie grand prize trophy) and read their poems aloud at the awards ceremony and poetry reading on May 20. Several other library branches are also hosting poetry events in April, which you can find by searching the library’s online calendar of events  for “poetry.”

Check out these online calendars of poetry open mics all over town – the PoetsWest Poetry Readings Calendar, and the Seattle Spoken Word Calendar. And sometime this month, all you poetry lovers might also want to schedule a visit to the Open Books poetry bookstore in Wallingford, arguably the heart of the poetry community in Seattle.

My wife and I always look forward to the Seattle Poetry Slam’s annual Grand Slam at Town Hall, this year on April 19, in which the competitive performance poetry team is chosen to represent the city at the National Poetry Slam.

And if you need a final poetry fix, the library will be hosting its 2014 Seattle Reads author – poet Richard Blanco – at various branches from April 26-29. Please join all your neighbors in reading his memoir For All of Us, One Today – An Inaugural Poet’s Journey.