Emily Dickinson's Birthday!

Dear Friends, There's no better day than today, Emily Dickinson's birthday, to share with you some highlights from your many wonderful responses to my last email asking which poems are important to you this season. Ron from Oakland, CA wrote "Thanks to the Academy I've spread a greater love of poetry through my UU congregation. I always include a bit of bio taken from your background info on the poets. This month our theme is 'gratitude.' I posted to our website the poem, 'Thanks' by W.S. Merwin and found out several people had used the poem to start their meetings." Gwenda from Belleview, FL noted that "Sara Teasdale's 'Barter' is one I share with my students. I especially like the idea that 'Life has loveliness to sell'" And Sara from North Beach, MD, remarked, "A poem that reminds me of this season is 'Falling: The Code' by Li-Young Lee. When I was growing up in Michigan, my parents and grandparents had apple trees in their backyards, and the thud of apples hitting the ground and the smell of fruit starting to decay in the fallen leaves was a regular part of autumn." Indeed, there is nothing like a "Page/ Of prancing Poetry." Poems help mark our celebrations and joyful life events. We rely on poetry to provide the right words at the right time. And in the stillness of this season, poems can also provide solace. As the winter holidays approach, for those of us who have lost loved ones, the falling snow can seem like, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, a "poem of the air" where the "troubled sky reveals the grief it feels." We need the empathetic expression that poetry provides. The Academy of American Poets works hard to make thousands of poems available to you year round on Poets.org, to deliver them right to your in-box every morning though our Poem-A-Day program, and to inspire many millions of people during National Poetry Month in April to read and write poems. But, as a nonprofit organization, we can only continue our work to promote poetry, distribute poems, and make educational resources available on our website with your help. Over the next few weeks, we need to raise $10,000, the first half of which will enable us to meet a match offered by the Bloomberg Foundation. Last year many of you helped us reach this goal, and we hope you will do so again by supporting our programs with a special year-end contribution. If you're able to give $50 or more, as a token of our gratitude, we will send you a copy of our Poem in Your Pocket anthology. I thank you in advance for whatever you might be able to contribute, and for helping to champion poetry. Gratefully, Jennifer Benka Executive Director, Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is recognized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization under the Internal Revenue code and meets all 20 Better Business Bureau charity standards. Donations to the Academy of American Poets are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. Find us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

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