Celebrate national Poem In Your Pocket Day on Thursday, April 26, 2012!
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. You can also share your poem selection on Twitter by using the hashtag #pocketpoem.
Poems from pockets will be unfolded throughout the day with events in parks, libraries, schools, workplaces, and bookstores. Create your own Poem In Your Pocket Day event using ideas below or let us know how your plans, projects, and suggestions for Poem In Your Pocket Day by emailing npm@poets.org.
Need a Poem for Your Pocket?
Along with your library, bookstore, or shelf at home, you can find the perfect poem for your pocket by browsing Poets.org, or by signing up to receive a poem from new spring poetry titles each day during April.
Download pocket-sized Poem PDFs to print and share:
Put Poems In Pockets
In this age of mechanical and digital reproduction, it's easy to carry a poem, share a poem, or start your own PIYP day event. Here are some ideas of how you might get involved:
Start a "poems for pockets" give-a-way in your school or workplace
Urge local businesses to offer discounts for those carrying poems
Post pocket-sized verses in public places
Handwrite some lines on the back of your business cards
Start a street team to pass out poems in your community
Distribute bookmarks with your favorite immortal lines
Add a poem to your email footer
Post a poem on your blog or social networking page
Project a poem on a wall, inside or out
Text a poem to friends
Help us expand the list: send your ideas to npm@poets.org.
Poem In Your Pocket History
Every year, in the month of April, National Poetry Month is celebrated throughout the United States and in various countries worldwide. In 2002, the City of New York created Poem in Your Pocket Day (PIYP) as part of the city's National Poetry Month celebration. In 2009, the Academy of American Poets took PIYP Day national, allowing individuals around the country to join in and channel their inner bard. Each year on PIYP Day, schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, and other venues ring loud with open readings of poems from pockets.
Throughout history, poems have been stowed in pockets in a variety of ways, from the commonplace books of the Renaissance to the pocket-sized publications for Army soldiers in World War II. Have a story about the marriage of the poem and the pocket? Send them to npm@poets.org.
Pocket Participants
Each year on national Poem in Your Pocket Day, the town of Charlottesville, Virginia unites in a day-long celebration of poetry. Over 7,000 scrolls are distributed. Find out more >
Poem in Your Pocket anthologies
More than a pocketful of poetry, the original Poem in Your Pocket anthology features 200 tear-and-share pages of poetry. Flip to the "Love & Rockets" section and surprise your sweetheart with a poem. Feeling nostalgic or wistful? Take a poem from the selection in "Friends & Ghosts" or "Sonic Youth." Whether you're a fan of Shakespeare or Sexton, O'Hara or Dickinson, this anthology has a poem for everyone.
Poets.org In Your Pocket
Poetry on the go: visit the Academy's mobile poetry archive to read our collection of more than 2,500 poems, as well as poet biographies and historical essays. Poets.org mobile site puts poetry at your fingertips, anytime and anywhere. Learn more >
To pull poetry from your pocket every day of the year simply go to www.poets.org/m on any mobile device. For a preview, click here.
Pocket Partners
Poem In Your Pocket Day is made possible, in part, by the National Council of Teachers of English and the American Booksellers Association, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Along with your library, bookstore, or shelf at home, you can find the perfect poem for your pocket by 
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