Someone ask me why I celebrate national poetry month. I gave them the most copied answer: To celebrate poetry and poets. I have been hyperactived at writing poetry from prompts, read about the veteran poets and different poetry forms, and learned more about publishing and speaking. I even participated in more contests and Poetry slams. I started to feel that this was the time to shed some light on the effects of poetry. I started to research the underground scenes. Guerilla poetry was becoming popular in Sacramento by ZFG. So I started to do video of me performing poetry in public areas. I took the idea of poetry and started to live by it. It became a weird addiction to me.
This is my second year diving into poetry this deep. My tweet poems were starting to get more attention, I performed a few guerilla poems at various public places, I spent more time studying new poems and forms in the various Libraries, I took second place in my monthly Sacramento Poetry Slam, and I pursued to write and blog 30 poems in a month for Napowrimo that I will make into a chapbook. I, even, started a poetry information zine called Iambic for the Sacramento Poetry community.
But I finish reading Jim Behrle’s Article and a question appears: Why do I celebrate national Poetry Month? Am I trying to restore my faith in poetry and shed some light on my own or has society’s abandonment disturbed me? I understand that all poetry is not good poetry. But, we discard poetry like racial harmony in the world. Plus, businesses exploit to sell a lot of poetry books and materials to intrigued patrons this month since, poetry sales are not an ongoing money maker.
Jim Behrle’s Article
Res Wonderland 