In celebration of National Poetry Month, the entire campus community is invited to join the Campus Poetry Project sponsored by the English, Foreign Languages and English as a Second Language Department.
Throughout April, be on the lookout for poetry postings in the Campus Chronicle and on digital monitors across campus, as well as our cardboard poet cutouts and poetry lawn signs. Take a selfie with your favorite poet!
This year, the American Academy of Poets is highlighting this verse: “we were all made for something” (Ada Limon). That is why we decided to focus on poems about work this year. We’ll include songs and lyrics about work, too! (Below is the official 2023 National Poetry Month poster from the American Academy of Poets.)
Also, 
please click here for a link to 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month in the classroom (or anywhere).
Today’s Poem
“Down to My Elbows (ending on a line by Shakespeare)”
by José Olivarez
hands in a sink
down to my elbows
clogged with gray water
wet rice soggy cornflakes
in the other room
you read Twitter & text
me your favorite jokes
so this is love
i ask the fistful of nasty gunk
in my hand like
it’s a Shakespearean skull
& the skull says
there is nothing either good or bad
but loving makes it so
Excerpted from “Promises Of Gold” by José Olivarez. Published by Henry Holt and Company. Copyright © 2023 by José Olivarez. Translation Copyright © 2023 by David Ruano González. All rights reserved.
José Olivarez is a poet, educator, and performer from Chicago. He is the winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize, and a recipient of fellowships from Poets House, the Bronx Council on the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, A cohost of the podcast, The Poetry Gods, Olivarez lives in New York City. (Photo credit: Mercedes Zapata)
Published: Fri, 14 Apr 2023 12:10:21 +0000 by j.austin