Welcome To National Poetry Month!

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Welcome To National Poetry Month!
April 03, 2008

Hello Poets and Poetry Lovers

Happy National Poetry Month! We have a great issue planned for you this week. Several new pages and some updated ones as well, but that's not all. I've got a great new article on how to write haiku poetry from Ed Weiss and I'd like to make mention of a new blog in town, Evolution of a Poet, written by Will Bridges. Will has committed himself to writing and publishing one new poem per day for a whole year. That makes the NaPoWriMo crowd look a little lame!

Speaking of NaPoWriMo, I have a full month of religious poetry planned for World Class Poetry Blog. If you haven't heard of NaPoWriMo, it's a viral promotion of poetry that coincides with National Poetry Month. Participants commit themselves to writing and publishing one new poem on their blog every day for the month of April. Instead of publishing my own poetry, however, I've decided to dedicate the month to publishing religious poetry every day instead. Some of the poems may be my own, but most of them will be religious poems of the past, or by contemporary poets, which I like. I hope you'll stop by and read.

And now, Hyperbole ...

"How To Write A Haiku Poem" by Ed Weiss
New Toolbar Features
World Class Poetry Updates
New World Class Poetry Pages
American Life in Poetry
Poetry Book Of The Week
New World Class Poetry Blog Posts
Are You Subscribed?
World Class Poetry Networking
Call For Submissions!

How To Write A Haiku Poem

By Ed Weiss

So, you want to know how to write haiku poetry. Some people think it should be easy to do. And, like most things, when you understand the underlying principles, it is! Let's begin.

Read the rest of this new article here

New WCP Toolbar Features

New features included in the toolbar this week include the addition of WGLT Poetry Radio and e-reviews by Rattle. Plus, the WCP toolbar has its very own web page now.

World Class Poetry Updates

These are mighty cool updates:

New World Class Poetry Pages

Brand new and looking good!

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American Life in Poetry: Column 157

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

From your school days you may remember A. E. Housman's poem that begins, "Loveliest of trees, the cherry now/ Is hung with bloom along the bough." Here's a look at a blossoming cherry, done 120 years later, on site among the famous cherry trees of Washington, by D.C. poet Judith Harris.

In Your Absence

Not yet summer,
but unseasonable heat
pries open the cherry tree.

It stands there stupefied,
in its sham, pink frills,
dense with early blooming.

Then, as afternoon cools
into more furtive winds,
I look up to see
a blizzard of petals
rushing the sky.

It is only April.
I can't stop my own life
from hurrying by.
The moon, already pacing.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2007 by Judith Harris, whose most recent collection of poems is "The Bad Secret," Louisiana State University Press, 2006. Reprinted by permission of Judith Harris. Introduction copyright (c) 2008 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

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Poetry Book Of The Week

This week's featured poetry book is Epistles: Poems by Mark Jarman. Jarman, a professor at Vanderbilt University, is the author of eight books of poetry. He built his reputation as a poet by arguing for New Formalism in the 1980s. Now he is highly recognized as one of the most gifted religious poets of today.