MCLS Poetry Circle Celebrates National Poetry Month

“When in April the sweet showers fall
And pierce the drought of March to the root and all
The veins are bathed in liquor of such power
As brings about the engendering of the flower;”

April means “to open” in Latin. For most parts of the world, it is the end of winter and beginning of spring. According to Geoffrey Chaucer in his opening lines from The Canterbury Tales (above), the beginning season of bird singing and flower blossoming enlightens people’s hearts and gives them spiritual renewal. In 1996, the Academy of American Poets with the help of publishers, librarians, poets, and teachers, designated April as National Poetry Month. Since then, April is like a holiday month for many people who love poetry across the United States.

MCLS Poetry Circle is a dynamic poetry program that promotes poetry reading and poetry writing at the Lawrence Headquarters Branch of the Mercer County Library System. We have a steady group of avid poetry lovers and poets from Lawrence, West Windsor, Hopewell, Pennington and Ewing. For many years, we read and discussed poetry in a circle every month. In the beginning of this year, we also added a poetry writing workshop to foster the creative energy in the group.

To celebrate National Poetry Month, we prepared several exciting poetry programs in April: our third annual Poetry Sign in the Garden display, Poetry Circle and Local Poets Poetry Reading and Book Signing, and Poetry book display with a special Local Poet’s Corner.

The Third Annual Poetry Sign in the Garden

As the facilitator of MCLS Poetry Circle for more than 10 years, I met so many wonderful and talented people in this group. Poet Bill Walters is one of them.

Bill Waters with his poetry sign displayed in the garden of Lawrence Headquarters Branch.

A few years ago, when Bill approached the library with his “poetry sign in the garden display” proposal, we were very impressed by it. Bill is a well-published Haiku poet. He runs the Poetry in Public Places Project, a Facebook group dedicated to showcasing poems that are displayed outdoors. Because Bill’s poetry sign display was a great success, we invited more Poetry Circle poets - Ann Kerr, Andrew Punk, and Mark Schardine - to write and display poems last year.

Ann Kerr with her poetry sign in the garden of Lawrence Headquarters Branch in April 2022.

This April, we have 7 poets’ work displayed in the Lawrence Headquarters Branch garden. They are by: Harvey Steinberg, Bill Waters, Mark Schardine, Sharon Wang, Andrew Punk, Ann Kerr and Edith McGowan. The annual poetry sign display in the garden is becoming a Poetry Circle tradition. As part of the tradition, we also planned a poetry reading to go along with the display.

Andrew Punk, Bill Walters, Edith McGowan and Sharon Wang with Harvey Steinberg’s poetry sign in the garden of Lawrence Headquarters Branch.

Poetry Reading and Book Display

Harvey Steinberg is another brilliant poet and dedicated Poetry Circle friend. Many of his poems are collected in his book, Agitations and Allelujas published by Ragged Sky Press in 2022, as well as in numerous literary print journals.

Poetry Month display table with a special local poet corner inside Lawrence Headquarters Branch.

“Has been nothing if not eclectic” (in his own words), Harvey also worked with me on a "Stanzas in the Stacks" project since last year, and collected more than a dozen local poets’ poetry books for our library system.

To thank Harvey for his hard work and local poets’ donations, we invited local poets Bruce Lowry, Ellen Foos, Coleen Marks, Andrew Condouris, Vida Chu and Lois Marie Harrod to our Poetry Circle annual poetry reading event. We also created a special Local Poet Corner on our Poetry Month display table. Patrons are encouraged to check out these books. All poetry friends are welcome to our poetry reading event. After the reading, we will give readers the chance to ask poets questions and get their favorite books signed, with the assistance of the Friends of the Lawrence Library.

- by Sharon Wang, Lawrence Headquarters Branch