April 2026: National Poetry Month

Apr 2, 2026 | Announcements, Library

By Research Librarian Jessica Zaricki

In 1996, the American Academy of Poets launched National Poetry Month to honor the significance of poetry within our culture. For 30 years, this celebration has worked to increase the visibility of poets and to increase poetry’s accessibility through initiatives such as “Poem In Your Pocket Day” on April 30. Join us in exploring selections from the collection featuring the work and stories of New Hampshire poets as we celebrate this 30th annual National Poetry Month.

Members, find the listed titles on display in the Sawtelle Reading Room through the month of April.

Under the Legislature of Stars: 62 New Hampshire Poets

LITERATURE

This anthology takes its name from the poem “Words for a Warrant” by Jane Kenyon and Donald Hall, which describes a town meeting. Much like a New Hampshire town meeting, the collection includes both new and familiar voices, and the juxtaposition of ideas and reflections remind us that we are stronger together.

Agran, Rick, Hildred Crill, Mark De Carteret, ed. Under the Legislature of Stars: 62 New Hampshire Poets. PS615 .N4 1999

Unflappable Women

LITERATURE

This fourth collection of poetry from Portsmouth’s first Poet Laureate celebrates the strong, influential, and unsung women in Esther Buffler’s life. She not only memorializes these individuals but grants a new platform for their hopes, dreams, disappointments, and lasting legacies.

Buffler, Esther. Unflappable Women. PS3552 .U385 U54 1994

One of Us Is Lost: Selected Poems

LITERATURE

This collection of poetry from the second Portsmouth Poet Laureate includes selections from all of Robert Dunn’s publications, including the penny books for which he was best known. The poems are spare, whimsical, unorthodox–much like the poet himself.

Dunn, Robert. One of Us Is Lost: Selected Poems. PS3506 .D86 2016

Robert Frost: A Tribute to the Source

LITERATURE

With additional text by David Bradley and photographs by Dewitt Jones, this collection of over 50 poems by US Poet Laureate Robert Frost draws connections between the poet and the inspiration he found in the natural world.

Frost, Robert. Robert Frost: A Tribute to the Source. PS3511 .R94 Z518

Without: Poems

LITERATURE

Hall, another US Poet Laureate, documents his wife and fellow poet Jane Kenyon’s battle with leukemia, from diagnosis, through treatment, and to her death. The poems explore themes of grief, love, memory, and death while offering an unflinching look at profound loss.

Hall, Donald. Without: Poems. PS3515 .A3152 W58 1998

Otherwise: New and Selected Poems

LITERATURE

This collection of poetry was selected and arranged by Kenyon shortly before her death in April 1995. It includes new and previously published poems–all of which serve to paint a picture of her life, her farm, her home. Even in suffering, her joy is ever present.

Kenyon, Jane. Otherwise: New and Selected Poems. PS3561 .E554 O85 1996

You Can’t Get There From Here

LITERATURE

I cannot remember if it was a librarian or a parent who placed a collection of Ogden Nash poetry in my little hands after I lamented there was no more Shel Silverstein to read. I still reach for these volumes when I need to laugh and remember that poetry also and maybe especially exists for the irreverent. This book includes illustrations by Maurice Sendak.

Nash, Ogden. You Can’t Get There From Here. PS3527 .A637 Y6

Portsmouth Unabridged: New Poems for an Old City

LITERATURE

This collection, edited by Portsmouth’s third Poet Laureate, includes the voices of over 90 poets sharing their reflections and memories of the city. The poems explore various histories, places, and personal experiences of Portsmouth.

Tirabassi, Maren C., ed. Portsmouth Unabridged: New Poems for an Old City. PS549 .P8 P68 2002

For to See the Elephant: A Novel-in-Verse

LITERATURE

Though classified as YA literature, this novel in verse from 12th Portsmouth Poet Laureate Tammi Truax is for everyone. She tells the story of the first elephants to come to America and their keeper, an enslaved boy named William, in the voices of those present to provide a new view of early America and the origins of the circus in this country.

Truax, Tammi. For to See the Elephant: A Novel-in-Verse. PZ7.5 .T78 2019

You Come Too: My Journey with Robert Frost

BIOGRAPHY

This memoir from Frost’s granddaughter presents a portrait of the poet and the women whose lives he touched. Here, we meet Robert Frost as a deeply engaged family man through his relationships with his wife, Elinor, and his daughter, Francis’ mother, Lesley. The book includes previously unpublished family writings and photographs.

Francis, Lesley Lee. You Come Too: My Journey with Robert Frost. PS3511 .R94 Z6529 2015

The Best Day the Worst Day: Life With Jane Kenyon

BIOGRAPHY

In this memoir, Hall explores his relationship with his wife, poet Jane Kenyon. The two met while Kenyon was a student at the University of Michigan and Hall was her teacher. It focuses on Kenyon’s growth as a poet over the course of their 23 year marriage, and their time spent at Eagle Pond Farm in New Hampshire. Hall also discusses Kenyon’s leukemia diagnosis and the toll taken by her rapid illness and death.

Hall, Donald. The Best Day the Worst Day: Life With Jane Kenyon

The Penny Poet of Portsmouth: A Memoir of Place, Solitude, and Friendship

BIOGRAPHY

Towler’s memoir is not only the story of her friendship with poet Robert Dunn, but also a remembrance of Portsmouth during the early 1990s. It presents the unorthodox life Dunn created in this particular time and place, interweaving meditations on what it means to be a writer amidst a culture defined largely by noise and busy-ness and what role companionship plays in the journey.

Towler, Katherine. The Penny Poet of Portsmouth: A Memoir of Place, Solitude, and Friendship. PS3554 .U4844 Z893 2016

IMAGE: Harriet Kimball in her parlor with a poem inscribed by J. P. B., Austin Street, Portsmouth, NH, circa 1890. The poet might possibly be John Prentiss Benson. Portsmouth Historical Society Collection, P0018_0347.