Since our blog debuted in 2017, we have published 500+ posts. While some of you may have been with us from the start (thank you, loyal readers!), others may have joined us more recently.
As a result, we’re highlighting some of the posts that have garnered a lot of views or that address topics of continuing interest in the current moment — posts that you may have missed or that you might want to revisit.
Today’s archival find: a post published in 2020 about “How to Celebrate National Poetry Month: 2020 Pandemic Edition” by Professor Traci Brimhall, itself an update of a 2018 post on the same theme.
In her 2020 post, Traci Brimhall offers 30 ways to celebrate National Poetry month, including #6-#10:
6. Read a poem aloud to a friend, roommate, romantic partner, or cat. Your cat will think you are cool. Your friends might also.
7. Hand-copy a poem you really love into a journal. You will learn totally new things about it by doing that.
8. Read this poem, and if you see me on campus in the future you can ask what line from it I have tattooed on my arm.
9. Make a cake that Emily Dickinson once baked.
10. Print a poem and doodle all around it. Now you’ve made art and can hang it in your kitchen above your cooling coconut cake.
This year, in her role as Kansas Poet Laureate, Traci has created “three different fill-in-the blank poem prompts for three different age groups” (kids, teens/young adults, and adults): “each focus on food in some way, from odd food combinations to strong memories and celebrations,” and can produce “delicious (and delightful!) poems,” she explains.
Enjoy Traci Brimhall’s 2020 post “How to Celebrate National Poetry Month: 2020 Pandemic Edition” — or her 2024 poem prompts linked above — and celebrate April with a poem!
— Karin Westman, Department Head
K-State English 