Like every year, National Poetry Month arrives for all those who, in the United States, enjoy writing and reading poetry. Libraries and cultural centers are filled with books and mentions of poets, and with the poets themselves carrying out readings, conversations, lectures, or book signings. Social media is filled with well-intentioned writing challenges (a poem a day, for example) and quotes from well-known or very obscure poems. Whoever is dedicated to poetry in this country is, of course, very busy in April.
These are all public and necessary celebrations of an art that, like any other spiritual exercise, is done primarily in privacy. I mean by this that, even if one writes or thinks about poems in the company of others at a university, a literary workshop, or a writing retreat, the poetic experience is an essentially individual, intimate endeavor. That is why I want to talk briefly about some issues that poets, readers, and cultural institutions of all kinds should consider during these celebrations.
Supporting Poetry
A great way to support poetry is to pay poets for what they do, even if the amounts are just a token of appreciation. Sadly, many cultural institutions think they are doing the poet a favor when they ask her to read or talk for free. They have been kind enough to receive the artist, show her work, and hive her a space, but in reality they are the ones who receive the favor of the poet's time.
Institutions that do not offer payment for the poet's work must be, at least, aware that it is no honor for anyone to work for free, and that they are the ones who should feel indebted and grateful. That is why such institutions must, at least, take care of giving said poet all possible promotion, and treat her with respect. Every April, poets take the risk of filling themselves with unpaid work. Sometimes, of course, they have to do it. But nobody should do it too many times.
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