Tea & Poetry Book Club: April is National Poetry Month

Although April is National Poetry Month, we should enjoy the sheer pageantry of words that perform on the pages of many chapbooks and poetry books every day. The Tea & Poetry Book Club encourages you to grab a book of poetry and a cup of tea, and then allow the flavors of the two mediums to transport you to a serene place of enlightenment, enjoyment and education.

Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture (poets.org). The Academy of American Poets led this initiative from its inception in 1996 and along the way enlisted a variety of government agencies and officials, educational leaders, publishers, sponsors, poets, and arts organizations to help.

So engage in celebrating the beauty of poetry. Attend a poetry reading, go to the library and check out some books on poetry, go to your neighborhood bookstore and buy a book from your favorite author, organize a group of friends to meet, read and discuss one or a few poems or you can go to this link and subscribe to receiving a Poem-A-Day from the Academy of American Poets http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/345.

Today, I am sipping a cup of Earl Grey Green tea, reading one of my favorite poems “Still I Rise” by my favorite poet, Maya Angelou. Grab yourself a cup of tea and Enjoy!

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops.

Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame

I rise

Up from a past that's rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

Here's to a cup of tea and a bit of poetry!
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