CELEBRATE NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

T.S. Eliot said that "April is the cruelest month," so thank goodness that it's also National Poetry Month! Though some fear that its audience may be dwindling, the avid support at local poetry readings and bookclubs is evidence of the power of poetry.

Throughout April, a number of events in the community (and in the country!) will be taking place to celebrate National Poetry Month. The Boulder Book Store will be promoting it with displays, recommendations, readings, bookclubs, and more! Here's a list of great ways to celebrate:

• Buy a poetry book! Stop by and browse our wide selection of poetry books and anthologies. We recommend Donkey Gospels by Tony Hoagland, Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey, Fire to Fire by Mark Doty, Love Poems by Pablo Neruda, and Red Bird by Mary Oliver. Our in-store displays also offer a variety of other recommended poetry reading.

• Attend a reading: Amy Catanzano will read from her new poetry collection entitled Multiversal on Tuesday, April 14th at 7:30pm. Multiversal proposes a theory of quantum poetics, and invites readers to explore the intersections between language, nature, science, and consciousness. Multiversal takes its name from the multiverse, a science fiction concept that has become an accepted theory in physics. It suggests that reality comprises multiple dimensions in space and time. In form and content, this collection takes novel approaches to the materiality of language itself, to the spacetime of poems.

• Join the Living Poets Society Poetry Bookclub at Boulder Book Store. This bookclub meets in the Upper North Room of Boulder Book Store on the second Tuesday of every month (7pm) to discuss a book of poetry by a living author.

• Participate in Open Mic Poetry Readings (bring your own or someone else's) on Friday, April 17th at 7pm in the Upstairs Ballroom. Or just come to listen! This is a great chance to network with the local poetry community (meet your peers, start a bookclub or workshop group).

• Celebrate National Poem-In-Your-Pocket Day (April 30th) by taking a pocket-sized poem (available in the store), sharing it with your friends, passing it along, or memorizing it. You can also pick up a copy of the book Poem In Your Pocket by the Academy of American Poets (Abrams, $14.95), and share the poems with everyone you know!