Established in Canada in 1998, NPM now brings together schools, publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, and poets from across the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in Canada’s culture.
Each year, the League of Canadian Poets selects a theme to ground our conversations, inspirations, and focus of National Poetry Month. LCP produces posters and bookmarks reflecting this theme, which are free to request for your home, school, library, or community!
Find the latest NPM updates at poets.ca/NPM.
Établie au Canada en 1998, le MNP rassemble les écoles, les maisons d’éditions, les librairies, les bibliothèques, les organismes littéraires et les poètes de partout au Canada afin de célébrer la vitalité d’une poésie bien ancrée au sein de la culture canadienne.
Chaque année, la Ligue des poètes canadiens choisit une thématique pour faire converger nos conversations, et nos inspirations pendant tout le mois d’avril. Que ce soit pour vous, votre école, votre bibliothèque, ou votre communauté, le Mois national de la poésie vous enverra gratuitement, sur demande, des signets et des affiches reflétant notre thématique.
National Poetry Month 2023: Joy
NPM 2023: Joy
The League of Canadian Poets invites you to celebrate the 25th National Poetry Month this April 2023! What will you read this National Poetry Month? What events will you organize, attend? Will you start your own poetry writing project? Will you write your first poem? Will you share your poetry online for the first time? This…
NPM23 Blog: Room for Little Joys by Prathna Lor
I was asked to write about joy and, to be honest, I’ve been having a hard time thinking about how to approach the subject. Now, that’s not to say I’m against joyful indulgence; in fact, if you asked anyone close to me, they’d probably tell you that I am the queen of relaxation. I eat…
National Poetry Month 2022: Intimacy
Poem in Your Pocket Day 2022
Poem in Your Pocket Day – April 29, 2022 – is an international movement that encourages people to centre poetry within their daily interactions. On PIYP Day, select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, coffee shops, street corners, and on social media using the…
NPM22 Blog: Why? And Why Now?: On Poetry and Companionship by Rob Taylor
My mother is disappearing. Diagnosed with dementia six years ago, in recent months her confusion has redoubled, her memories leaving and arriving as unpredictably as fish to the surface of a pond. If she goes out of her house for a walk, she can’t always find her way back. If she wakes up after a…
National Poetry Month 2021: Resilience
Poem in Your Pocket Day 2021
Poem in Your Pocket Day – April 29, 2021 – is an international movement that encourages people to centre poetry within their daily interactions. On PIYP Day, select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, coffee shops, street corners, and on social media using the…
NPM21 Blog: Broken and Beaten Things: On Resilience by Bertrand Bickersteth
Can you consider something resilient if it’s broken? This question emerges from my tendency to confuse persistence and resilience. There is a relationship, after all. To me, they are both impressive. Both have to do with a certain staying power. Both invoke a kind of underdog, against-all-odds achievement. But there is at least one key…
National Poetry Month 2020: A World of Poetry
National Poetry Month 2020 Blog List
This National Poetry Month 2020 has been full of amazing poetry, poets, and community. In case you missed any of our amazing NPM Blog posts, here is a recap of all the thoughts, ideas, and reflections offered up by our esteemed group of NPM Blog poets. Thank you to all our contributors for your voices…
A World of Poetry and Fun
by Janet Rogers for National Poetry Month, April 2020 I am a full time writer. I am also single and child-free which makes being a full time writer, that much more fun. I mention this as a way to introduce my position as a global writer. I travel extensively for my career and I stay…
National Poetry Month 2019: Nature
NPM19: Announcing a new award from the League of Canadian Poets!
To close out National Poetry Month 2019, the League is very excited to announce something big that we’re looking forward to launching this year… a brand new $10,000 poetry prize! We couldn’t think of a better way to say farewell to #NPM19 than to share something for rising talents in Canadian poetry to look forward…
Poem In Your Pocket Day 2019
Poem in Your Pocket Day – April 18, 2019 – is an international movement that encourages people to centre poetry within their daily interactions. On PIYP Day, select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, coffee shops, street corners, and on social media using the hashtag #PocketPoem.…
National Poetry Month 2018: 20th Anniversary
Poem In Your Pocket Day 2018
Poem in Your Pocket Day is an international movement that encourages people to centre poetry within their daily interactions. On PIYP Day, select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, coffee shops, street corners, and on social media using the hashtag #PocketPoem. The 2018 Poem in Your…
#NPM18: LA POÉSIE PARTOUT | GUEST POST BY JONATHAN LAMY
de diffusion, de médiation et de dissémination de la poésie La poésie peut être faite partout, avoir lieu n’importe où. Voilà le principe fondateur de La poésie partout, un organisme à but non lucratif mis sur pied à Montréal en janvier 2017, dans le but d’inventer, produire, relier et diffuser des activités poétiques variées. La…
National Poetry Month 2017: Time
POETS RESIST: NPM ON ALU, FINAL STRETCH
This content has been provided by All Lit Up, an online bookstore and blog run by the Literary Press Group for readers of emerging, quirky, and unabashedly Canadian literature by some of Canada’s finest independent publishers. One final, tremendous thanks to the great folks over at All Lit Up who have been curating and sharing…
NPM AND BEYOND: RECOMMENDATIONS
And just like that, National Poetry Month is nearly over — our hearts are heavy, and our to-read lists grew as much as they shrank this April. In our last NPM and Beyond! blog post, we wanted to chat with some of our shortlisted authors about their reading habits and recommendations. Find out what books…
National Poetry Month 2016: The Road
THAT’S A WRAP: NPM16
It feels like we woke up yesterday and National Poetry Month was just beginning, but somehow it’s May tomorrow and we have to wrap up our celebrations. We’ve had such a great month celebrating poetry, both online and in events across Canada, and seeing what other organizations orchestrated for our favourite month! We’ve definitely missed…
HITTING THE ROAD: ATLANTIC PROVINCES
National Poetry Month is almost over, and so too is our virtual road trip. We hit our last four provinces today, driving through PEI, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick. We know for a fact that all of the Atlantic provinces are highly literary and active, but once again we confess we don’t have…
Posters and themes: NPM 2015 and earlier
All NPM blog posts
My World of Poetry
by SPIN El Poeta for National Poetry Month, April 2020 Wajxaqib’ Aq’ab’al (Escrito)Jun Toj (Editado)Keb’ Tz’i’ (Finalizado) Saludos familia, desde el territorio ancestral Cree e Inuit de Whapmagoostui/Kuujjuarapik. I AM a Guatemayan refugee, child of a single mother, keeper of the sacred Mayan Cholq’ij calendar, spoken word poet, rapper and youth advocate. I AM the…
Poetic Places to Discover in Canada
by Chloe Coome for National Poetry Month, April 2020 Poetry is interwoven into the cultural tapestry of Canada and one need only visit to experience its far-reaching influence. In Montreal, one can go to the Saint-Louis Square and see the Monuments of Émile Nelligan and Octave Crémazie – the first National Poet of Quebec and…
Fructification, Creative Misunderstanding, Empathy: East and West Dissolve
by Sonja Arntzen for National Poetry Month, April 2020 Since the early twentieth century, by a process Ezra Pound called “fructification,” the poetries of East Asia have nourished poetry in English. Pound used the term writing a preface in 1918 for Ernest Fenollosa’s essay, “The Chinese Written Character as Medium for Poetry.” That essay was…
Communicating Vessels
by Beatriz Hausner for National Poetry Month, April 2020 At its most essential, translation is the transfer of textual or verbal objects from one language to another. Literary translation can be more readily compared to a kind of alchemy, where the contents of one vessel are poured into another vessel, and back again, to create…
Kamal Parmar — It's Only Words
Listen to Kamal Parmar read her poem “It’s Only Words” as a medium to offer hope and healing during these difficult times. Nanaimo poet and writer, Kamal Parmar has been passionately involved in writing since high school and University years. Her genre is poetry and creative non-fiction and she dabbles frequently with Haiku poetry. Her…
Poetry and the World
by Mary Lee Bragg for National Poetry Month, April 2020 Anyone who has travelled to Portugal or spent time with Portugese people has heard fado – the guitar, the long melodic lines, the half sob of songs full of saudade. Fado is defined by saudade, a nostalgia that goes beyond a sense of loss to…
