A Year of Poems: April

Yes, yes, courtesy of T.S. Eliot we know April is the cruelest month, but "The Wasteland" isn't really a poem about April. I think of April as the month with the "shoures soote" (sweet showers), courtesy of having to memorize the opening to Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales for an English class in college. I remember working carefully at the Middle English pronunciation: SHOW-res SOE-tuh, if I recall.

For those who enjoy official designations of days, weeks and months, this is National Poetry Month, established in 1996. If you're talking about poetry in social media this month use #NationalPoetryMonth. 

A note on format: Curated lists of poems usually list the first few lines as an excerpt. I choose specific lines that may be from some other part of the poem, ones that capture something about the poem that made me choose it.

"The General Prologue" by Geoffrey Chaucer

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licóur

Of which vertú engendred is the flour;

"Just Before April Came" by Carl Sandburg

The snow piles in dark places are gone.

Pools by the railroad tracks shine clear.

The gravel of all shallow places shines.

A white pigeon reels and somersaults.

"April" by Janet Norris Bangs

It's that roustabout born of a fairy mother—
Playfellow month that never grew old,
Cradled in the moon with the wind to brother,
Fed on tempests and sun and cold.

"April 18, 2011" by Richard Katrovas

It is snowing in southwest Michigan.

Such weather is unusual so late.

The trees are squirting buds that advocate

For green profusions that yesterday began

To grunt and poke and strain toward full-blown spring.

Now fleeced, the trees are January stark.

"April 29th" by Alexander F. Bergman

It will be remembered that this day
was beautiful with usual skies,
with constant earth,
with sleep and work and love,
    It was a perfect day for flying kites.

"April Rain Song" by Langston Hughes

Let the rain kiss you

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops

Let the rain sing you a lullaby

"April Rise" by Laurie Lee

Blown bubble-film of blue, the sky wraps round

Weeds of warm light whose every root and rod

Splutters with soapy green, and all the world

Sweats with the bead of summer in its bud.

"April" by Sara Teasdale

The roofs are shining from the rain,

The sparrows twitter as they fly,

And with a windy April grace

The little clouds go by.

A Year of Poems

• A Year of Poems: January
• A Year of Poems: February
• A Year of Poems: March