National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month, and as winter finally winds down it is increasingly likely that one could venture out of the house in search of poetry. I say “venture out” because while there is much verse downloadable (see the Poetry Foundation), our Special Collections is home to several significant poetry collections. Noteworthy are The Frank P. Piskor Collection of Robert Frost, the Marianne Moore Collection (one of her manuscripts is pictured), the Rudyard Kipling Scrapbook, the display out in the reading room of Adirondack Poetry curated by SLU Senior Holly Brown, and the Frank P. Piskor Book Collection.
Venturing to our Frank and Anne Piskor Reading Room to read through the books or papers in these collections also means reading the real thing; that is, it means holding the poem as an artifact, as a discrete object, as a thing unique like the timber of a voice or handshake. Dana Gioia has written eloquently on this experience, and along with the experience of a visit to the reading room one has the opportunity to understand the poem in a way unique from an e-version–there is truth in pursuit. So if you have not been by the ODY Special Collections for a bit, April is the perfect month…