Celebrate National Poetry Month with the Bishop Dunne Library. On Wednesdays throughout April, come hear some middle school poets read their own works in the courtyard during first lunch.

If you write poetry, or if you would like to read some poetry, come by and talk to Ms. Gibson about participating in the next mini poetry slam in the courtyard, or email mgibson@bdhs.org.

On Thursday, April 28, at 10:00 a.m., the library welcomes poet Mike Guinn, who will conduct a poetry slam with several literature classes. Mr. Guinn is based in Ft. Worth and regularly works with area schools.

If you have an iPhone, you might want to sign up for the Poem Flow app from the Academy. The download is free and includes 20 poems and one week of poem-of-the-day.

Celebrate the birthday of poet William Wordsworth (April 7, 1770-April 23, 1850), author of “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” and “The World is Too Much with Us.” April is also the month of Poet Christopher Smart’s birth (April 11, 1722-May 21, 1771). He wrote Jubilate Agno, which contains some famous lines about his cat, Jeoffry.

 April 13 is the birthday of Irish poet Seamus Heaney. Heaney’s work includes “The Tollund Man” and “Digging” and a verse translation of Beowulf. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995.

 from Beowulf

So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have heard of those princes’ heroic campaigns.

    . . . . .

The fortunes of war favoured Hrothgar.
Friends and kinsmen flocked to his ranks,
young followers, a force that grew
to be a mighty army. So his mind turned
to hall-building: he handed down orders
for men to work on a great mead-hall
meant to be a wonder of the world forever;
it would be his throne-room and there he would dispense
his God-given goods to young and old–
but not the common land or people’s lives.

   . . . . .

translated by Seamus Heaney