Poem in Your Pocket Day

The Neighborhood Art House will celebrate national Poem In Your Pocket Day as part of its National Poetry Month commemoration tonight. Winners of the NAH's poetry contests will recite their poems and the Art House's Poetry on Stage troupe will perform a version of "The Ant and Grasshopper" fable by Toni Morrison. For readers who are locals, come on down...7:00 pm tonight. It's great fun! Here's a one-minute preview video.



Students from the Poetry on Stage class at the Art House will perform as part of the celebration of National Poetry Month.

More on Poem in Your Pocket Day from poets.org:

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 on April 17.

Some ideas for Poem in Your Pocket Day--
* Post pocket-sized verses in public places
* Handwrite a poem on your business cards
* Leave some poems in a restaurant
* Distribute bookmarks with your favorite lines
* Add a poem to your email footer
* Post a poem on your blog or social networking page
* Text a poem to friends

I'll be acting as the MC for the event and here is the poem I'll be carrying in my pocket:

The Place I Want to Get Back To

is where
in the pinewoods
in the moments between
the darkness

and first light
two deer
came walking down the hill
and when they saw me

they said to each other, okay,
this one is okay.
Let's see who she is
and why she is sitting

on the ground, like that,
so quiet, as if
asleep, or in a dream,
but, anyway, harmless;

and so they came
on their slender legs
and gazed upon me
not unlike the way

I go out to the dunes and look
and look and look
into the faces of the flowers;
and then one of them leaned forward

and nuzzled my hand, and what can my life
bring to me that could exceed
that brief moment?
For twenty years

I have gone every day to the same woods,
not waiting, exactly, just lingering.
Such gifts, bestowed,
can't be repeated.

If you want to talk about this
come to visit. I live in the house
near the corner, which I have named
Gratitude.

Mary Oliver