April is National Poetry Month and NHPR wants to hear from you. Is there a poem that reminds you of a special place here in the Granite State? Maybe you associate a poem with the memory of a place you’ve visited, a spot you often return to, or a hidden gem here in New Hampshire.
Email us a poem, by a poet other than yourself, that evokes the spirit of your special place in New Hampshire to voices@nhpr.org, and tell us what it means to you. We’ll share your poems and reflections with State Poet Laureate Alex Peary and they may be read on the air or posted online. If you have a photo of that place, please include it.
Please keep your explanations to 200 words or less. If you are under 18, please indicate in your response. The deadline for submissions is Sunday, April 23.
For some inspiration, All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa and Alex Peary shared the poems they chose with listeners.
Peary says "The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain" by Wallace Stevens reminds her of Mount Kearsarge.
"This is a poem about a human being going to a presumable top of a mountain and having a view of something in their life and their experiences that's pretty vast. And Mount Kearsarge, to me, when I'm on the top of that mountain, I can contemplate more the whole region around me and it seems more down to earth, pun intended there, even though I'm high up on the peak."
Furukawa says "A Mountain Brook" by Lady Ise reminds her of a river in Rumney, New Hampshire.
"I really fell in love with the sport of rock climbing about a year and a half ago, and Rumney is quite a destination for climbers from around New Hampshire and actually internationally and all around New England. And it brings together people from all different life experiences, and there's this sense of camaraderie that is formed there over a shared love of a sport. And particularly in the summer months, it gets really hot and you're exerting yourself scaling these cliffs and pushing yourself to your limits sometimes. And at the end of the day, people from all over the the region come together and sit on the bank of this small river and jump in to cool themselves off. And there's this sense of togetherness that you get. I've met some truly lovely people. And this shared experience that we have of being so joyfully exhausted is one that I really treasure."
