The MCPL Blog: Poetry

September 25, 2018

Would you like to hear about Wisconsin politics from an author receiving national attention? Ask an award-winning mystery writer a question? Want to learn how to start your own blog or create your own podcast? Maybe you’d like to hear Wausau-area writers — teenagers to senior citizens — read their own, original work? Over the course of 4 days, a person has a chance to do any of that — maybe ALL of that — and much more during the 2nd annual Central Wisconsin Book Festival, taking place around the Wausau area September 27–30, 2018. The festival began in 2017 as a way to connect authors of all stripes with fans of the written word around Central Wisconsin. At the same time, it was meant to...

June 11, 2015

The United States has a new champion for poetry. On June 10, the Library of Congress announced it appointed Juan Felipe Herrera as the nation’s Poet Laureate, a position that dates back to 1937 and is aimed at raising awareness of the reading and writing of poetry. Perhaps most significant in the announcement is the fact that Herrera, 66, is the first Latino poet to be named to the post. You can read or listen to an NPR story here, but the short version is he’s the son of migrant farm workers and spent much of his earlier life on the west coast. He studied at both UCLA and Stanford, as well as the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. He has since written more than two dozen books. If you’re curious to read some of...

April 8, 2015

There are plenty of things to celebrate in April, but one of my favorite is poetry. Here at MCPL in Wausau, we’ve got two activities to encourage you to experience poetry every day.  Come and build a poem with LEGO poetry in the TeenZone. Each LEGO has a word on it and you are invited to create a poem by using the words on the LEGOS.  It’s like magnetic poetry, but in three dimensions.  When you are done, take a picture with your phone, name the picture with the title of the poem (and your name if you want) and send it to us at teenzone@mcpl.us. We’ll post the poems to our Facebook page, so remember to like MCPL on Facebook to see your poem. Don’t have time to build a poem here?  Take...

April 16, 2008

It's April and Spring is finally here and with it National Poetry Month sponsored by the Academy of American Poets.  Poems speak to us in different ways, affecting our heart and soul. I know that I easily become engulfed in a poem, lingering, enjoying the sound and play of the words, drinking in its meaning. Poems often find a way into our busy lives when mere words are not enough, when we find it difficult to express the depth of our feelings and need something to soothe us, inspire us, give us hope—weddings, funerals, when we fall in love.  Some of my favorite collections of poetry that you may also enjoy are: Good Poems—selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor—a nice...

April 16, 2008

It's April and Spring is finally here and with it National Poetry Month sponsored by the Academy of American Poets.  Poems speak to us in different ways, affecting our heart and soul. I know that I easily become engulfed in a poem, lingering, enjoying the sound and play of the words, drinking in its meaning. Poems often find a way into our busy lives when mere words are not enough, when we find it difficult to express the depth of our feelings and need something to soothe us, inspire us, give us hope—weddings, funerals, when we fall in love.  Some of my favorite collections of poetry that you may also enjoy are: Good Poems—selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor—a nice collection...