Poets, Cowgirls and the Library

National Poetry Month, which runs throughout the month of April, is a month-long, national celebration of poetry established by the Academy of American Poets. The hope is to bring together communities, libraries and schools to widen the attention of individuals to the art of poetry, to poets that live right next door and to our complex poetic heritage. 

So in celebration the Academy of American Poets will be launching a month-long series of guest poets on their Twitter feed (www.twitter.com/POETSorg). Throughout the day during the month of April, a selected poet will have 24 hours to send out nugget-sized bits of insight and wisdom.  The Rapid City Public Library will be following as well and check our Twitter feed (www.twitter.com/rapidcitypublib) for some of our favorite poems, poets and quotes as National poetry Month rolls along. Also feel free to send your own favorites or original work to our Facebook or Twitter accounts.

April also features Cowboy Poetry Week from the 17th to the 23rd and it is the perfect time to explore some of South Dakota’s rich lyrical and poetic history. To start check out Linda Hasselstrom’s No Place Like Home where Linda provides a stark contrast of the three Western communities that framed her life. Whether living off the land in rural South Dakota, in the semi-urban Cheyenne, Wyoming, or at her writer’s retreat at Windbreak House, Linda provides a feisty and dry commentary on life in the West. Also check out Crazy Woman Creek, a collection of prose and poetry outlining and expanding on the experiences, realities and lives of real Western women that leaves their stereotyped and dated images in the dust. Stop by the downtown library and visit our Cowboy Poetry display for many of our books related to Western, Rural and Native American poetry and writing.

The 10th Annual High Plains Writer’s Poetry competition is taking place again at the Rapid City Public Library-Downtown in our Solarium on Friday, April 22 at 7:00 pm. While submissions for poems end on Monday April 18th, anyone is welcome to attend or sign up to read their own poem. The Poet’s Coffeehouse is the perfect time to present your work and share your talent with other area poets. Whether you are a cowboy poet, a coffee house beatnik or an average Joe/Jane that picks up a pencil every now and again, stop by and hear what is going on.

Can’t find a poem of your own to read? At a loss for inspiration or just want to find something new? Then check out LitFINDER from the Rapid City Public Library. Go to our webpage (www.rapidcitypubliclibrary.org), click on our Databases tab and then go to “L” for LitFINDER. LitFINDER is a collection of full-text poems, plays, essays and speeches from numerous famous and lesser known writers, poets and various notables.

All content is online and accessible from your home’s internet connection. You can search by keyword, author, and title or even by genre and century.