Poets take center stage in April

The increase in poetry-related activity is intended to connect more people to the experience. Blogs, Twitter, and other social media have helped poets connect with readers.

National Poetry Month “gives poets more variety in April, and shows the potential of the poetry market, which I think is growing,’’ said Mark Schorr, literature professor at Cambridge College’s Lawrence campus and executive director of the Robert Frost Foundation, which tweets one line of Frost per day.

“Poetry is the genre people go to when they are looking for the right words to capture or experience a moment,’’ said Beverly’s January Gill O’Neil, a poet whose first book, “Underlife,’’ was published last year.

“It could be a wedding, a funeral, and everything in between,’’ she said. “If it’s 9/11, or [the earthquake in] Haiti or Hurricane Katrina, or some moment like a child’s first words, getting laid off, something wrong with the economy, poetry can help put it into context, which is something fiction doesn’t always do as well.’’

Natalie Giordano, a Gordon College sophomore, said that compiling readings from faculty, staff, and students for the college’s monthlong poetry podcast — which adds a new entry each day — has given her an appreciation of poetry’s emotional texture and versatility.

“No matter what day it is, what mood you’re in, what situation you’re in, there’s a poem that can match that,’’ she said.