Busboys and Poets featured a reading by their poet-in-residence Derrick Weston Brown in honor of his first collection of poetry, Wisdom Teeth.

I had not heard Brown before the reading. I never went to the open mics nor the slams he hosted. In fact, when I looked online for some of his poems, I felt pretty sure that I would not like his writing.

Much of the reason for this is cultural differences – differences at least partly resulting from race. I am white. I was raised by white people who primarily inculcated me in the cultural specifics white American and Anglo-European culture. The culture of the poetry at Busboys and Poets is inextricably tied to Washington, DC’s African-American history and culture.

The disconnect for me is that, for me, poetry is always most deeply informed by the written word. By the physical page and appearance of the words upon it (my parents each spent much of my childhood reading in silence, especially during difficult or upsetting times, and this made my ties to the written word almost unavoidable). Slam poetry, hip hop inflected poetry – these are forms more deeply informed by the oral word.

But…

Once I was able to flip through Wisdom Teeth, I loved it. Really loved it.

Brown’s poetry is still intimately and predominantly informed by oral culture, but also by the formal techniques of the written word. A series of poems near the beginning about a group of slaves in the American south is especially affecting in its combining of colloquial language and oral traditions with the contemporary forms of written poetry.

Of course, now the question becomes, do I like his poetry only because it touches on the poetic traditions of “my” (read: white, European) culture?

Such tricky ethical, philosophical, and sociological questions aside, check out Wisdom Teeth.

The poet Kim Rosen suggested (among other things) making thirty copies of poem you, in particular, love. Then, to read that poem to someone in your life and hand them a copy.

It’s a wonderful idea, though I will probably never do it (I am too non-confrontational, too uncomfortable with salesmanship). I like it because it gives the people who receive it a very manageable way to enter into the world of poetry and forces them to look at it and try to understand and appreciate. They are forced to this because they know that this poem is uniquely meaningful to the giver.

Should someone actually attempt this, I would hope that it would not just be something by Robert Frost or a sonnet by Shakespeare, but something that digs down deeper into the world of poetry.

And now that I have pondered this further, I think I will do it. I will bring a copy of a poem by Cavafy to my Dungeons & Dragons group (I named my character after him, so the idea of a poem by Cavafy will have some meaning for my compatriots) and maybe even embarrass my significant other by handing some out to her fellow vendors at Eastern Market. Or maybe I will forget or lose my nerve and not do it after all.

Though for me, National Poetry Month is something to be celebrated, however flawed, others see the flaws as far outweighing whatever positives may exist.

Charles Bernstein, for example, is very put out by the whole spectacle. I cannot disagree with his arguments, either. He posits that NPM (National Poetry Month) becomes a means to promulgate the safest and most milquetoast poems. Even worse, that the Poetry Foundation (which is behind NPM) does not actually promote poems and poets during April, but merely the idea of poetry. In general, the critique is well worth reading and I suggest you click on it and read.

Nonetheless, though I tend to agree with every word Bernstein writes in that article, I still treasure NPM. Not because the Poetry Foundation takes out full page ads, filled with the names of their sponsors rather than poems and poets. But because of what people unaffiliated with them do with it. Independent bookstores rush to bring in poets for readings. Even the big chain bookstores will have enterprising managers put books of poetry on the tables near the entrance. So what if the books in question are by Billy Collins or (heaven forfend) Jewel. It’s still poetry. People like me make a conscious effort to support poetry even more than usual this month. Isn’t that worth something? No one loves NPM for what the establishment does with it, but what individual people, libraries, teachers, students, and bookstore managers do with it.

I myself will not do as much with it as I should. But damn it, I will celebrate it.

April is National Poetry Month, but frankly, you should already have known that. Certainly, you should be thinking of how you will be supporting poetry in your community.

I took advantage of my local Borders closing to purchase Robert Hass’ collection Time and Materials. I figured that I would bring it when he reads on May 21. Things are a little tight, so this may be my sole poetry purchase for the month (or maybe not – I’ve got some Barnes & Noble gift cards I haven’t tapped out yet, plus store credit at my favorite local used bookstore, Capitol Hill Books).

Naomi Shihab Nye is reading at the Folger in a week and I don’t like to miss those – especially during National Poetry Month. The next day, Language Poet Kit Robinson is reading at Bridge Street Books. To be quite honest, if it’s a choice between the two, I would probably prioritize Kit Robinson.

Maybe I’ll use my B&N gift card to pick up something by Nye (since Robinson is reading at Bridge Street Books, it seems downright shameful to show up with a book purchased at a chain bookstore). While it won’t help me support either of these poets, I could check the nifty poetry room at Capitol Hill Books and trade in my credit for something poetic.