By JOHN Y. COLE
Approximately 30 students from Rudolph and Stanton elementary schools in the District of Columbia recently came to the Library of Congress to participate in the Center for the Book's celebration of National Poetry Month.
All participants received a free copy of "How to Eat a Poem: A Smorgasboard of Tasty and Delicious Poems for Young Readers" (Dover Publications, 2006), edited by Andrew Carroll of the American Poetry and Literacy Project and Charles Flowers and Douglas Korb of the Academy of American Poets.
"To eat a poem is to read it and swallow it whole," says Poet Laureate Ted Kooser in his foreword to the anthology, paraphrasing a poem by Eve Merriam that gives the book its title.
Three local poets participated in the program: Kenny Carroll, executive director of the DC WritersCorp; and Richard McCann and Kyle Dargan, who teach at American University. Carroll, McCann and Dargan each read several poems from the anthology, and asked the young readers to follow along in their books.
Carroll read "Today Is Very Boring" by Jack Prelutsky. McCann followed with "Little Old Letter" by Langston Hughes, and Dargan read "First Love" by Carl Lindner.
Stimulated by what they had just heard and primed by their teachers, the students lined up behind the microphone to read their poems. Most of them read from "How to Eat a Poem." However, other young poets read from their own work—some funny and others quite moving.
At the end of a lively and boisterous hour, many of the students were reluctant to leave until their personal copies of "How to Eat a Poem" were signed by the three local poets.
The event was co-sponsored by DC SCORES, an affiliate of America SCORES, a national nonprofit organization that brings literacy and other activities to young people around the country, the American Poetry and Literacy Project and the Academy of American Poets, which established National Poetry Month in 1956. All three organizations are reading promotion partners of the Center for the Book.
To view Webcasts of more than 65 programs sponsored by the Center for the Book, including this program and last year's celebration of National Poetry Month that featured a reading by Jorie Graham, visit www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/cyber-cfb.html.
John Y. Cole is director of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.