My Favorite Poem

Everyone has a favorite poem. What’s yours? From “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost to selections drawn from such beat generation classics as Mexico City Blues and A Coney Island of the Mind, people of all ages and backgrounds have favorite poems. These poems bring them joy and strength. Perhaps yours is a poem of liberation by Langston Hughes, a haiku by Matsuo Basho, or “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W.B Yates.

This Fifth Tuesday event at Star Line Books features YOU. Bring a copy of your favorite poem and come prepared to read for no more than four minutes. No sign up,  just come prepared to read.

The My Favorite Poem program is not affiliated with the Favorite Poem Foundation or the national Favorite Poem program launched by Robert Pinsky when he served as Poet Laureate of the United States, in 1997. It does, however, claim inspiration from that program.

Pinsky launched his program with readings of poems in five major cities. He then solicited copies of favorite poems from people across the nation, which he published in four books. Ultimately, the program resulted in a series of videotapes of people reading their favorite poems. One particularly memorable video featured a construction worker who read his favorite poem at a job site while wearing a hard hat.

My Favorite Poem is a local project. We may not publish books or videotapes, but we will gather for this one night to publicly read great works of poetry, our favorite poems. We may follow the reading with a discussion of possibly holding My Favorite Poem readings as a regular event.