Every year the world celebrates Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 30th as a way of concluding the world renowned Poetry Month. Each nation celebrates it a little bit differently, but one thing stays the same – Poem in Your Pocket Day.

Even if you don’t like poetry, you can enjoy the idea behind the event while exposing yourself to a variety of new perspectives, emotions, and voices (personalities). Basically the premise is to find a poem that you have written and are extremely proud of or a poem that you admire. Once you have a poem you write it out nicely and neatly or print it off and you keep it folded in your back pocket, purse, backpack, wherever you keep things safe and close by; whenever you pass people by you ask them for a moment of their time to read the poem you have decided is your momentary favorite. If they are informed they have a poem in their pocket and you get to hear or read their choice as well.

“Poetry isn’t one of my hobbies and I don’t exactly enjoy it, but it is new and definitely interesting,” said Joel Renfro (11), “I hope people participate in this.”

Teachers at West High have their own take on the day and its importance to the poetic field, Mrs.White, a West High English teacher, said “I struggle teaching poetry because it’s so personal how do I grade it? I try to push them as poets, as writers of any kind, to write purposefully. There are tools I give my students, but how they choose to use them is their own choice. Now that I know about poem in your pocket day, my freshman will absolutely be participating.”

The poem should be inspirational, moving, or just plain captivating. Robert Frost’s “The Road Less Traveled” is an expected favorite to be carried by countless people each year. Another popular piece is “Kidnap Poem,” by Nikki Giovanni, simply for its stunning uniqueness. Additionally self-written poems flourish on this day as a way of up and coming poets to get their name out there without seeming pushy or needy to the public.

It is fun to see how people use the day to their advantage in both ways that expand their horizons as well as finding inspiration for future writings. Even if you do not enjoy poetry you can find something to love about poem in your pocket day!