I will always love paper. Paper of any kind—in books, newspapers, letters, postcards, cardboard, playing cards, wadded up paper, paper made into origami figures and footballs and those little fortune-teller things you used to make in junior high during history class, notes, grocery lists, wrapping paper. Yeah, you get the idea.
April 18, Poem in Your Pocket Day, is about paper. And more specifically about poetry on paper. I know you can “cheat” and carry a poem on your phone or some other electronic device or in your head or some such. But I prefer old school Poem in Your Pocket Day. A poem on a piece of paper folded and inserted in your pocket. Not in your purse or your backpack or your car or in your lunch. In your actual pocket.
Thus, you must remember to wear clothing with pockets on Thursday. You must remember to write down or print out a poem—doesn’t matter if it it’s famous or not, yours or not, ancient or not—and put it in your pocket in the morning. Then, don’t forget about it. Take it out once an hour or more and take a look at it. Read it to someone. Memorize it. Copy it on another piece of paper or a sidewalk or your office cubicle or on a leaf or your ham sandwich.
At the end of the day do not throw away your poem. Hang it on your refrigerator or frame it and sell it on Craig’s List. Modge-podge it to your bathroom wall. You can eat it but I’m not responsible for your digestive situation. Hang it by your cat’s litter box or put it in the litter box or staple it to a tree in your yard.
So to recap, here are the rules:
- Get a poem you love on a piece of paper.
- Carry the poem in your pocket.
- Read it throughout the day.
- Do something with it at the end of the day.
Oh, and these are optional but would be much prized by me:
- Comment below about the poem you carried and the experience.
- Send me a photo of the poem as it looks at the end of the day (with permission to post it on this blog).
A pocket is made for a poem. And a poem is made for a pocket.
–Shaun Perkins
Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry 
Reblogged this on Nature’s Abhorred Vacuum.
I teach 7th grade English and all my students chose a small poem today to put in their pockets tomorrow. They are challenged to read their poem to three teachers or staff members. They were pretty jazzed about it and some even tried to read their poems to teachers today!
Joan–That is great. I commend you for bringing the idea to them. When I was a teacher, we always celebrated PIYP Day. Let me know how it goes tomorrow, please!