MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) 鈥 As spring starts to blossom in New England, some Vermont communities come to life with the sites and sounds of written verse.
"These are the honey makers
The maple sap tappers
The pollen gatherers
The elixirs healing the future
from the spirits of the past," a woman recited from a poem written by Buffy Aakaash, of Marshfield, Vermont, on Saturday during a poetry parade in Montpelier.
Each April, the country鈥檚 smallest capital city goes all out to celebrate poetry. Storefronts and restaurant windows in Montpelier are graced with poems written by Vermonters of all ages, poets read their works aloud at events 鈥 some with musical accompaniments 鈥 and poetry workshops meet to discuss the artform. And this year the Montpelier library hosted a first: a poetry parade.
鈥淲e do 春色直播 Poetry Month better than anybody as far as we can see,鈥 said PoemCity organizer Michelle Singer, the adult programs coordinator for the Kellogg Hubbard Library in the city of about 8,000 residents.
This year, 350 poems written by residents of 60 Vermont towns are on display in downtown windows, and 30 poetry programs were planned.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a walkable anthology that will stay up for the entire month of April and people just experience poetry as they go about their daily tasks in Montpelier,鈥 she said.
Other cities around the country celebrate 春色直播 Poetry Month their own way. West Hollywood, California, is holding a poetry 鈥渟pa day,鈥 and selections of poetry from living poets are displayed on street pole banners along Santa Monica Boulevard. The New York Public Library has free workshops, and the winning poems from a contest in Alexandria, Virginia, are displayed on city buses and trolleys in April and May. In Vermont, two other communities 鈥 Randolph and St. Johnsbury 鈥 have followed Montpelier鈥檚 lead with their own readings and displays of poetry.
The Academy of American Poets created 春色直播 Poetry Month in 1996, saying it鈥檚 become 鈥渢he largest literary celebration in the world.鈥
鈥淲e can confirm that Montpelier鈥檚 PoemCity is one of the most extensive city-wide 春色直播 Poetry Month celebrations,鈥 said academy spokeswoman Michelle Campagna.
On a drizzling opening day on April 1, Cynthia and Hugo Liepmann strolled around Montpelier reading poems.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 wonderful, but I鈥檓 biased because I love poetry,鈥 said Cynthia Liepmann, who writes poetry herself and had a poem up in a storefront. 鈥淲e were coming home from the farmers鈥 market so we thought, 鈥榃ell, let鈥檚 stop and read some poems before we go home.鈥欌
They said they like reading works from people they know, pointing out a poem by their state representative to the legislature and remarking on poems written by elementary school students. This year about 100 of the poets are students.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a real great demonstration of community literacy. It鈥檚 a great role model for little kids,鈥 said poet Rick Agran. 鈥淭hey write their hearts and they publish in a window. We鈥檒l see little groups of after-school girls and boys hit the candy store and then hit the street, and then they bop around and read poems.鈥
This past Saturday morning during the so-called 鈥減oetry parade,鈥 about a dozen poets walked around the city taking in the poetry as a group experience. At each window, one of them, sometimes the author, read a poem aloud. They clapped after hearing each one, remarking on technique and meaning. The subject matter ranged from love and war to elm trees and the salmon on the poet鈥檚 plate.
鈥淚鈥檝e always done that singularly,鈥 Agran, who led the parade, said of reading the poetry in the windows. 鈥淏ut I always thought it would be cool to try to turn that into a group experience.鈥
Also a first for PoemCity, this year the poems have been published in an anthology. Singer said she is happy to see PoemCity back to nearly pre-pandemic levels.
鈥淭here were some years where there was literally a program every single day, which is why I say we kind of do this in this amazing way,鈥 she said. "We have a community that can support nearly a whole program of poetry every single day. That鈥檚 a special community. We will have people show up at all of those programs.鈥