Poem in Your Pocket Day – falling always sometime in National Poetry Month – is an international movement that encourages folks to center 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.
This annual initiative is organized by the Academy of American Poets, celebrated with a free downloadable PDF booklet containing contemporary American and – since the League joined forces in 2016 – Canadian poetry to share. Click here for 2019’s booklet.
Poem in Your Pocket Day will take place in April 2021
The LCP Annual Poem In Your Pocket Day Contest is now open! Submit your poem to have your work nationally distributed on Poem in Your Pocket Day. Fill out this form to submit your entry. Deadline is November 30, 2020.
Submission Guidelines:
- Open to League members and non-members
- One poem submission per person
- 40 lines or fewer
- Appropriate “for all ages” as poems are distributed to schools
- Poems may have been published elsewhere
- No payment required
Ways to Celebrate
It’s easy to carry a poem, share a poem, or start your own Poem in Your Pocket Day event. Visit the Academy’s website for a full history of the program and other materials. Here are some ideas of how you might get involved:
- Start a “poems for pockets” giveaway in your school or workplace
- Urge local businesses to offer discounts for those carrying poems
- Post pocket-sized verses in public places
- Memorize a poem
- Start a street team to pass out poems in your community
- Distribute bookmarks with your favorite lines of poetry
- Add a poem to your email footer
- Post lines from your favorite poem on your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr
- Send a poem to a friend
Choose your pocket poem – or poems – from the League’s 2020 Poem in Your Pocket Day Booklet! In it, you’ll find the 15 poems by Canadian authors selected for this year’s celebration plus information on how to celebrate PIYP Day, 10 ways support your favourite poets, and more!
The official 2020 Poem in Your Pocket Day poems are…
Swimming In Church Lake by John Wall Barger
Cosmic Egg Hypothesis by Laura Cok
Le Mot Juste by M.E. Csamer
Christmas Work Detail, Samos by Steven Heighton
Why Scrabble by Louisa Howerow
Letters Home by Kevin Irie
Believe… by Penn Kemp
Concealing by Shannon Kernaghan
Missed Call by Annick MacAskill
The Last Time I Saw You by Carol L. MacKay
Lovers by Diana Manole
making milk by Christine McNair
Crepuscule by Colin Morton
Georgian Bay Meditation by Nan Williamson
The Moon Over Istanbul by Bänoo Zan
Carry a Poet in Your Pocket!
Celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day by carrying one (or all!) of these Canadian poetry heavyweights with you! Each in their own way, these poets have contributed to the establishment, development, growth, and continued richness of Canadian poetry — in Canada and abroad.
Dig through the archives! We feature new Canadian poets in each annual booklet, put together in partnership with Academy of American Poets so there’s lots to look back on. View, share, or copy and paste any Poem in Your Pocket selections!
PIYP Day 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016
For your French pocket poem needs, check out the 2018 booklet created by La poésie partout for La Journée du poème à porter.