Poem In Your Pocket Day 2026: "Fear" by Kahlil Gibran

Today, the last day of National Poetry Month, is also Poem In Your Pocket Day, and I am carrying around a thoughtful piece by the legendary Lebanese-American writer, poet, and visual artist Kahlil Gibran. It speaks to a cycle and a greater order that we might not see from our possibly limited vantage point. I will be sharing it with others and synchronicity will make certain it finds its way to someone who needs to hear it.

Fear
by Kahlil Gibran

It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.

She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.

And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.

Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.

The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2025: "For A Student Who Used AI To Write A Paper" by Joseph Fasano

For today's Poem In Your Pocket Day, part of 2025 National Poetry Month, I am stuffing into my pocket a beautiful little gem of a poem from Joseph Fasano. It speaks to the inescapable nature of being and the only thing we have to do while we are here: don't shirk it, let it take us, describe it, create something from it.

For A Student Who Used AI To Write A Paper
by Joseph Fasano

Now I let it fall back
in the grasses.
I hear you. I know
this life is hard now.
I know your days are precious
on this earth.
But what are you trying
to be free of?
The living? The miraculous
task of it?
Love is for the ones who love the work.

http://josephfasano.net/

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2024: "The End and the Beginning" by Wisława Szymborska

For today's Poem In Your Pocket Day, part of National Poetry Month, I am sharing this sober slice of poetica vérité by the wonderful Polish writer Wisława Szymborska, born 1923 and died in 2012. She was probably thinking of another war when she wrote this, but here we are in 2024, wars, wars, everywhere...the one thing our planet has never had a shortage of.

The End and the Beginning
by Wisława Szymborska
Translated by Joanna Trzeciak

After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won’t
straighten themselves up, after all.

Someone has to push the rubble
to the side of the road,
so the corpse-filled wagons
can pass.

Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.

Someone has to drag in a girder
to prop up a wall.
Someone has to glaze a window,
rehang a door.

Photogenic it’s not,
and takes years.
All the cameras have left
for another war.

We’ll need the bridges back,
and new railway stations.
Sleeves will go ragged
from rolling them up.

Someone, broom in hand,
still recalls the way it was.
Someone else listens
and nods with unsevered head.
But already there are those nearby
starting to mill about
who will find it dull.

From out of the bushes
sometimes someone still unearths
rusted-out arguments
and carries them to the garbage pile.

Those who knew
what was going on here
must make way for
those who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as little as nothing.

In the grass that has overgrown
causes and effects,
someone must be stretched out
blade of grass in his mouth
gazing at the clouds.

Poem In Your Pocket Day: "Lamb" by Richie Hofmann

Today is Poem In Your Pocket Day, almost the last day of the month...people celebrate by selecting a poem, carrying it with them, and sharing it with others throughout the day at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, and workplaces.

I have chosen this sweet, evocative poem, "Lamb" by Richie Hofmann. It speaks directly, wistfully, to my childhood, and leaves me with an ache for my Tiger. He explains:

"I traveled a lot as a child. One constant was my stuffed animal, which might have been a lamb or a calf. The poor thing got so beat up and dirty as I dragged him from place to place. I have a distinct memory of the fear that someone would take him from me. Stuffed animals are cute and bizarre, but they’re also early effigies of attachment, eros, and death."

Lamb
by Richie Hofmann

I had a lamb I brought everywhere

who only had one eye.

At the train stations,

all the grown-ups would say, be mindful

of your things, little boy,

someone will steal right out of your pocket

or take the watch off your wrist.

My dad had a beautiful overcoat.

The lamb’s white fur got smudged.

My brother was a baby,

and in the restaurants,

the old waiters would pick him up

and kiss him again and again on the cheek

with their mustaches

and tell my parents

that they promised they would bring him back in a minute

but now they needed to show the chef.

I don’t remember when the eye became unglued

and who knows where it went.

On long train rides,

I remember falling asleep,

putting my finger in the hole where it used to be.

Once he had to go in an overhead bin,

and he was freezing when I kissed him again.

Richie Hofmann | Photo by Marcus Jackson

https://www.richiehofmann.com/

Poem In Your Pocket Day: "Questions" by Rachel Richardson

Today is Poem In Your Pocket Day, almost the last day of the month...this is a day when people take a poem with them through their day to share with the world.

I've chosen this poem, "Questions" by Rachel Richardson, which examines the disorienting, disbelieving space one can occupy after losing a loved one. Many years ago, I experienced a string of losses of family and friends, and the incongruity of the continuing presence of all the silly, inconsequential daily-life things next to the empty space a loved one leaves is difficult and leaves one searching. This marvelous poem captures both the outward casual sense of the passing world as well as that yearning, pining, internal state.

The poet has this to say about her creation:
“I’ve been fascinated lately with algorithms and the things we expect computers to do for us. This poem came out of an internet search of the thousand most popular questions people googled in 2017 (and the astounding profit they generated for Google). Even though many of the questions seem vapid, I can’t help thinking that what we want to know, ultimately, is how to live. This poem is for my dear friend, the writer Nina Riggs, who died in February 2017 and who taught me the best answers I know to that question.”

Questions
by Rachel Richardson

If there’s one true thing, it’s that
Google will make money off us no matter what.
If we want to know
what percentage of America is white
(as it seems we do)
what percentage of the population is gay
(as it seems we do)
what percentage of the earth is water:
the engine is ready for our desire.
The urgent snow is everywhere
is a line by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and
many have asked, apparently,
where am I right now. Also
when will I die. Do you love me
may be up there, generating
high cost-per-click, but not
as high as how to make pancakes,
what time is it in California.
So many things I wanted to ask you,
now that you’re gone, and your texts
bounce back to me
undeliverable. Praise to
the goddess of the internet search, who returns
with her basket of grain,
67,000 helpful suggestions
to everything we request:
how to solve a Rubik’s Cube,
what to do when you’re bored,
how old is the earth,
how to clear cache,
what animal am I,
why do we dream,
where are you now, come back.

https://www.rachelbjrichardson.com/

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2021: "Ode to Sitting in a Booth" by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

This year for National Poetry Month, Poem In Your Pocket Day is almost the last day of the month...this is a day when people take a poem with them through their day to share with the world. If you are unbale to go to school or workplace becasue of the virus, consider digitally sharing your poem.

So let's look at a poem that is itself a delightful celebration of going out to a favorite dark spot for a drink and a good time. It's a reminder that we will all be able to go out and have a good time again, once it's safe to do so...

Ode to Sitting in a Booth
by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

It’s the closest thing to a cave. I have to resist
this wild urge to carve a name or word in it.

My favorite way to sit here is with cold vodka
& grapefruit juice & whatever bitter concoction

you’re sipping. Under the table I’ll nudge you
with my heels—a sign no stalactite or dripstone

will stop us. Bats do not require any energy
to claw-dangle upside down. All they need

is to relax & gravity & there’s plenty of both
swirling to go around. No matter how loud

this bar, within these three walls we can drop
straight into a very electric flight. We can

pretend we don’t answer to anyone–including
the waitress–& no one even knows where we are.

https://aimeenez.net/

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2020: "The Map" by Marie Howe

This year for National Poetry Month, Poem In Your Pocket Day is the last day of the month...this is a day when people take a poem with them through their day to share with the world. So let's close out our poetry celebration with a poem that, despite its brevity, speaks to the breathtakingly enormous concept of self, other, and empathy--our very presence in the world. I'm sharing it with you here--and since we are all under some form of quarantine, please consider sharing it virtually. I hope it becomes the ripple in a pond that Howe clearly intended it to be.

The Map
by Marie Howe


The failure of love might account for most of the suffering in the world.

The girl was going over her global studies homework

in the air where she drew the map with her finger


touching the Gobi desert,

the Plateau of Tiber in front of her,


and looking through her transparent map backwards

I did suddenly see,

how her left is my right, and for a moment I understood.

http://www.mariehowe.com/

Happy National Poetry Month 2020!

"Poetry provides us with a history of the human heart."
--Billy Collins

April is National Poetry Month, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets since 1996. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture.

How to celebrate?

Read your favorite poet again.
Read some new poetry.
Find a new favorite poet.
Write some poetry.
Leave poems for people to find in public places.
Read poetry out loud to family and friends.
Dream a poem.

Throughout April, I'll be posting poems, some by me, some by others, as well as a series of lyrics to popular songs that double as exquisite poetry.

And this year, Poem in Your Pocket Day is April 30th! Every April, on Poem in Your Pocket Day, people celebrate by selecting a poem, carrying it with them, and sharing it with others throughout the day at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, and on Twitter using the hashtag #pocketpoem. Considering the virus event, no one is sure if we will be able to go to schools, libraries, parks, or workplaces. If you are on a lockdown in your state or country, consider digitally sharing your poem.

Poem in Your Pocket Day was originally initiated in 2002 by the Office of the Mayor, in partnership with the New York City Departments of Cultural Affairs and Education, as part of the city’s National Poetry Month celebration. In 2008, the Academy of American Poets took the initiative to all fifty United States, encouraging individuals around the country to join in and channel their inner bard. In 2016, the League of Canadian Poets extended Poem in Your Pocket Day to Canada.

Happy National Poetry Month!

https://poets.org/

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2019

Every April during National Poetry Month, one day is set aside for Poem In Your Pocket Day, a day when people take a favorite poem with them through their day to share with the world. This year, the event is today, April 18th, 2019. Today I will be sharing the powerful, urgent "Poetry as Insurgent Art [I am signaling you through the flames]" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti...in honor of his hundredth birthday last month but also because we live in desperate times and this poem is needed.

Poetry as Insurgent Art [I am signaling you through the flames]
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I am signaling you through the flames.

The North Pole is not where it used to be.

Manifest Destiny is no longer manifest.

Civilization self-destructs.

Nemesis is knocking at the door.

What are poets for, in such an age?
What is the use of poetry?

The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it.

If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of apocalyptic times, even if this meaning sounds apocalyptic.

You are Whitman, you are Poe, you are Mark Twain, you are Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, you are Neruda and Mayakovsky and Pasolini, you are an American or a non-American, you can conquer the conquerors with words....

Happy National Poetry Month 2019!

April is National Poetry Month, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets since 1996. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture.

How to celebrate?

Read your favorite poet again.
Read some new poetry.
Find a new favorite poet.
Write some poetry.
Leave poems for people to find in public places.
Read poetry out loud to family and friends.
Dream a poem.

Throughout April, I'll be posting poems, some by me, some by others, as well as a series of lyrics to popular songs that double as exquisite poetry.

And this year, Poem in Your Pocket Day is April 18th! Every April, on Poem in Your Pocket Day, people celebrate by selecting a poem, carrying it with them, and sharing it with others throughout the day at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, and on Twitter using the hashtag #pocketpoem.

Poem in Your Pocket Day was originally initiated in 2002 by the Office of the Mayor, in partnership with the New York City Departments of Cultural Affairs and Education, as part of the city’s National Poetry Month celebration. In 2008, the Academy of American Poets took the initiative to all fifty United States, encouraging individuals around the country to join in and channel their inner bard. In 2016, the League of Canadian Poets extended Poem in Your Pocket Day to Canada.

Happy National Poetry Month!

https://www.poets.org/

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2018

Every April during National Poetry Month, one day is set aside for Poem In Your Pocket Day, a day when people take a favorite poem with them through their day to share with the world. This year, the event is today, April 26th, 2018. Today I will be sharing the delightful "If a Poem Could Walk" by Lorna Crozier.

If a Poem Could Walk
by Lorna Crozier

It would have paws, not feet,
four of them to sink into the moss
when humans blunder up the path.

Or hooves, small ones,
leaving half-moons in the sand.
Something to make you stop
and wonder
what kind of animal this is,
where it came from, where it’s going.

It draws nearest when you are most alone.
You lay red plums on your blanket,
a glass of cool cider, two sugar cubes,

knowing it is tame and wild—
the perfect animal—
knowing it will stop for nothing
as it walks
with its four new legs
right off the page.

http://www.lornacrozier.ca/

April Is National Poetry Month 2018!

April is National Poetry Month, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets.

“Poetry is about liberation. It’s about imaginative freedom, deep emotional experience, and it’s a liberating force.”
--Arthur Sze, Academy of American Poets Chancellor (2012–2017)

“It can’t be paraphrased. It can’t be translated. The great poetry I love holds the mystery of being alive. ”
—Marie Howe, Academy of American Poets Chancellor (2018– )

How to celebrate?

Read your favorite poet again.
Read some new poetry.
Find a new favorite poet.
Write some poetry.
Leave poems for people to find in public places.
Read poetry out loud to family and friends.
Dream a poem.

Throughout April, I'll be posting poems, some by me, some by others, as well as a series of lyrics to popular songs that double as exquisite poetry.

And this year, Poem in Your Pocket Day is April 26th! Every April, on Poem in Your Pocket Day, people celebrate by selecting a poem, carrying it with them, and sharing it with others throughout the day at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, and on Twitter using the hashtag #pocketpoem.

Poem in Your Pocket Day was originally initiated in 2002 by the Office of the Mayor, in partnership with the New York City Departments of Cultural Affairs and Education, as part of the city’s National Poetry Month celebration. In 2008, the Academy of American Poets took the initiative to all fifty United States, encouraging individuals around the country to join in and channel their inner bard. In 2016, the League of Canadian Poets extended Poem in Your Pocket Day to Canada.

Happy National Poetry Month!

https://www.poets.org/

April Is National Poetry Month 2017

April is National Poetry Month 2017! Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. This year's poster was created by the fabulous, delightful, and endearing Maira Kalman (previously here) and features a quote by former United States Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks:
“Books are meat and medicine
and flame and flight and flower
steel, stitch, cloud and clout,
and drumbeats on the air.”

How to celebrate?

Read your favorite poet again.
Read some new poetry.
Find a new favorite poet.
Write some poetry.
Leave poems for people to find in public places.
Read poetry out loud to family and friends.
Dream a poem.

Throughout April, I'll be posting poems, some by me, some by others, as well as a series of lyrics to popular songs that double as exquisite poetry.

And this year, Poem in Your Pocket Day is April 27th! Every April, on Poem in Your Pocket Day, people celebrate by selecting a poem, carrying it with them, and sharing it with others throughout the day at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, and on Twitter using the hashtag #pocketpoem.

Poem in Your Pocket Day was originally initiated in 2002 by the Office of the Mayor, in partnership with the New York City Departments of Cultural Affairs and Education, as part of the city’s National Poetry Month celebration. In 2008, the Academy of American Poets took the initiative to all fifty United States, encouraging individuals around the country to join in and channel their inner bard. In 2016, the League of Canadian Poets extended Poem in Your Pocket Day to Canada.

And in honor of National Poetry Month, let's start things off with "He said I wrote about death," a lovely, aching poem about the truth of life by Kim Dower.

He said I wrote about death,

and I didn’t mean to, this was not
my intent. I meant to say how I loved
the birds, how watching them lift off
the branches, hearing their song
helps me get through the gray morning.
When I wrote about how they crash
into the small dark places that only birds
can fit through, layers of night sky, pipes
through drains, how I’ve seen them splayed
across gutters, piles of feathers stuck
together by dried blood, how once my car
ran over a sparrow, though I swerved,
the road was narrow, the bird not quick
enough, dragged it under my tire as I drove
to forget, bird disappearing part by part,
beak, slender feet, fretful, hot,
I did not mean to write about death,
but rather how when something dies
we remember who we love, and we
die a little too, we who are still breathing,
we who still have the energy to survive.

https://www.poets.org/
http://kimdowerpoet.com/

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2016

The Weighing
by Jane Hirshfield

The heart’s reasons
seen clearly,
even the hardest
will carry
its whip-marks and sadness
and must be forgiven.

As the drought-starved
eland forgives
the drought-starved lion
who finally takes her,
enters willingly then
the life she cannot refuse,
and is lion, is fed,
and does not remember the other.

So few grains of happiness
measured against all the dark
and still the scales balance.

The world asks of us
only the strength we have and we give it.
Then it asks more, and we give it.

https://www.poets.org
https://www.facebook.com/janehirshfield/

Happy National Poetry Month 2016

April is National Poetry Month! Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, this year's celebration marks the twentieth anniversary of this delightful event. This year's poster starts with the poem "Maggie Says There's No Such Thing As Winter" by Janet McNally.

How to celebrate?

Read your favorite poet again.
Read some new poetry.
Find a new favorite poet.
Write some poetry.
Leave poems for people to find in public places.
Read poetry out loud to family and friends.
Dream a poem.

And in honor of National Poetry Month, let's start things off with a lovely, expansive poem by Dorothea Lasky.

There Is No Name Yet

Until I find a name
I will not put it in the soul calculator
I will leave it free and open and unnamed
And not limit my expectations for the kind of person
That goes in one direction of the wind
I will keep all lines of the wind open
And place all my days free and empty
And re-envision what it means to be unencumbered
Or bereft
Not crying but the expanse of numbers
That go beyond the grave to what is left
And it may be true
I said it could be true
That the sunny days do stick to walls
And then enter you
It may be true that the purple bells do chime
Everyday you let them
It may be true that the sweet juice
I put across my lips would not be my last
But that the nights could get better and better
Until the evil is banished until the day
When the sun would crush it anyway
It was true without a set of things like letters
It was true the air was free and open
And I saw things as they were
Without violence
For the first time


https://www.poets.org

http://www.dorothealasky.com/

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2015

Every April during National Poetry Month, one day is set aside for Poem In Your Pocket Day, a day when people take a favorite poem with them through their day to share with the world. This year, the event is today, April 30th, 2015.

And today, I will be sharing the lovely, bittersweet poem "Before" by Ada Limón. It captures a feeling that anyone who has lived will understand...

Before

No shoes and a glossy
red helmet, I rode
on the back of my dad’s
Harley at seven years old.
Before the divorce.
Before the new apartment.
Before the new marriage.
Before the apple tree.
Before the ceramics in the garbage.
Before the dog’s chain.
Before the koi were all eaten
by the crane. Before the road
between us, there was the road
beneath us, and I was just
big enough not to let go:
Henno Road, creek just below,
rough wind, chicken legs,
and I never knew survival
was like that. If you live,
you look back and beg
for it again, the hazardous
bliss before you know
what you would miss.


http://adalimon.com/

http://www.poets.org/

Happy National Poetry Month 2015

April is National Poetry Month! Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. This year's poster is by famed New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast, based on a poem by the late Mark Strand, former Poet Laureate of the United States.

How to celebrate?

Read your favorite poet again.
Read some new poetry. Find a new favorite poet.
Write some poetry.
Leave poems for people to find in public places.
Read poetry out loud to family and friends.
Dream a poem.

And in honor of National Poetry Month, let's start things off with a piece by Pulitzer Prize winning poet James Tate.

Long-Term Memory

I was sitting in the park feeding pigeons
when a man came over to me and scrutinized my
face right up close. "There's a statue of you
over there," he said. "You should be dead. What
did you do to deserve a statue?" "I've never seen
a statue of me," I said. "There can't be a statue
of me. I've never done anything to deserve a
statue. And I'm definitely not dead." "Well,
go look for yourself. It's you alright, there's
no mistaking that," he said. I got up and walked
over where it was. It was me alright. I looked
like I was gazing off into the distance, or the
future, like those statues of pioneers. It didn't
have my name on it or anything, but it was me.
A lady came up to me and said, "You're looking at
your own statue. Isn't that against the law, or
something?" "It should be," I said, "but this is
my first offense. Maybe they'll let me off light."
"It's against nature, too," she said, "and bad
manners, I think." "I couldn't agree with you
more," I said. "I'm walking away right now, sorry."
I went back to my bench. The man was sitting there.
"Maybe you're a war hero. Maybe you died in the
war," he said. "Never been a soldier," I said.
"Maybe you founded this town three hundred years
ago," he said. "Well, if I did, I don't remember
it now," I said. "That's a long time ago," he
said, "you coulda forgot." I went back to feeding
the pigeons. Oh, yes, founding the town. It was
coming back to me now. It was on a Wednesday.
A light rain, my horse slowed...


http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41
http://www.poets.org/

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2014

April is National Poetry Month and today is Poem In Your Pocket Day, a day when people take a favorite poem with them through their day to share with the world. And this is the one I will be carrying with me to share with others today. It is a lovely, mysterious, transcendent piece by poet, scholar, and my old friend, Joel Long.

Cliff Dive

Measure the depth of water with your hands.
Arch your fingers as though they could not be broken.
Consider the gradual darkness underwater as an equal
to depth, the murk, the pressure on your ears, the cooling
of your eyes as you begin to see outlines of stones,
a tree branch, waterlogged, wedged in silt.
Consider the height of these lichen-spotted cliffs,
above the water as a gauge for what is underneath,
that kind of distance inverted in the water,
that kind of weightlessness converted to weight
of river and earth, not lift but fall, a boulder
you'll never move, deep shade nothing will break.
The undertow they warned you about keeps you
under like a water plant, hands now fronds
measuring the speed of the current, the strength
this time of your spine burrowing in the bottom,
the dark polestar, the anchor inside it.
We will want to know when you return to the surface.
Send word. Bring back data, a brief description
from that far down. We will wait for you on shore.

--Joel Long

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41
http://www.poets.org/

"Poet In My Pocket"

In honor of Poem In Your Pocket Day today (part of the April's National Poetry Month), here is Grant Snider's "Poet In My Pocket."

http://www.incidentalcomics.com/

National Poetry Month 2014

April is National Poetry Month! Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, this year's poster for the celebration features heart-stopping lines from "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman.

This month:
Read your favorite poet again.
Read some new poetry. Find a new favorite poet.
Write some poetry.
Leave poems for people to find in public places.
Read poetry out loud to family and friends.
Dream a poem.

And April 24th, 2014 is Poem In Your Pocket Day. According to the Academy of American Poets, "The idea is simple: select a poem you love during National Poetry Month then carry it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends."

I'll be posting poems, some by me, some by others, during the month.

And to kick it off, here is the appropriately titled "April" by Jean Valentine.

April

Suppose we are standing together a minute
on the wire floor of a gasenwagon:
suppose we are in the dark.

It's warm and dry.
We have food.
We aren't in hiding waiting, mostly
we're sitting in our own light rooms.

Come over, bring things: bring
milk, peanut butter,
your pills, your woolens, crayons.

Nuns pray.
Snow. It's dark.
Pray for our friends who died
last year and the year
before and who will die this year.

Let's speak,
as the bees do.


http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41
http://www.poets.org/
http://www.jeanvalentine.com/