Literative

This is a test of the public library system and American democracy. This is only a test. To prevent an actual emergency, please stay on the line for the following public service announcement and support your local library.Resources:American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/·     Advocacy & Issues: https://www.ala.org/advocacy·     Freedom to Read Statement: https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/freedomreadstatement·     Membership: https://www.ala.org/membership·     State of America’s Libraries Report: https://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2026Everylibrary. https://www.everylibrary.org/·     Endorsing the Books Save Lives Act of 2026. 28 May 2026. https://www.everylibrary.org/endorsing_books_save_lives_act_2026·     Statement in Support of the Open Books, Open Doors Act. 28 May 2026. https://www.everylibrary.org/statements4028·     Statement: Rejecting the FY2027 Trump IMLS Budget. 5 April 2026. https://www.everylibrary.org/rejecting_fy27_trump_imls_budgetHelmick, Sam. “The Architecture of Democracy: Choosing the Future of America’s Libraries.” https://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2026---. “Since You’re Already Doing Everything Else.” Facebook. 17 May 2026.Hoopla. https://www.hoopladigital.com/Institute of Museum and Library Services. https://www.imls.gov/Kanopy. https://www.kanopy.com/enLibby. http://libbyapp.com

April showers bring May flowers, along with longer days, warmer nights, and constant birdsong. So why are poets in such a mood about spring?  Maybe because all that new life is hard to take when you’re grieving a loss or coping with change. Now that we’re well into May, might we look back and agree with T. S. Eliot? Was April the cruelest month?Resources:Braganza, V. M. “Our Second April.” Los Angeles Review of Books (24 May 2021). https://lareviewofbooks.org/blog/essays/second-april/  Chaucer, Geoffrey. General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales. Harvard’s Geoffrey Chaucer Website. Harvard University.  https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/general-prologue-0Dickinson, Emily. “In Shadow” (I dreaded that first robin so). Poems by Emily Dickinson, ed. Mabel Loomis Todd and T. W. Higginson.  https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12242/12242-h/12242-h.htm#I_dreaded_that_first_robin_soEliot, T. S. “The Waste Land.”  Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47311/the-waste-landHoney Bee Suite. “Good News Bees: More than a Colorful Buzz in the Blooms” (15 April 2023). https://www.honeybeesuite.com/good-news-bees-more-than-a-colorful-buzz-in-the-blooms/Millay, Edna St. Vincent. “Assault.” Second April. A Celebration of Women Writers, ed. Mary Mark Ockerbloom. University of Pennsylvania. https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/millay/april/second-april.html#32---. “Spring.” https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/millay/april/second-april.html#1Portus, Rosamund. “The Stories We Tell: Exploring the Folklore of Bees in an Age of Extinction.” NICHE (4 November 2022). https://niche-canada.org/2022/11/04/the-stories-we-tell-exploring-the-folklore-of-bees-in-an-age-of-extinction/

Today we discuss W. H. Auden's poem "September 1, 1939," by way of Georgi Gospodinov's award-winning novel Time Shelter, and Auden's message for uncertain and fearful times. There is no such thing as the StateAnd no one exists alone;Hunger allows no choiceTo the citizen or the police;We must love one another or die.Image: Unsplash/Library of CongressResources:Auden, W. H. “September 1, 1939.” Gospodinov, Georgi. Time Shelter. McGuiness, Patrick. “Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov Review: The Dangers of Dwelling in the Past.” 

Literative is celebrating the official start of National Poetry Month, the 30th anniversary celebration of poetry's influence on our daily lives. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste-Land both take place in April, as does William Shakespeare's birthday. But April 1st is also April Fool’s Day, so today we'll read some poetry that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Or perhaps, like the fools in Shakespeare’s comedies, these poems mix some shrewd observations into their silliness. Resources:Academy of American Poets. National Poetry Month 30th Anniversary.  https://poets.org/national-poetry-month-30th-anniversaryByron, George Gordon, Lord. “When a man hath no freedom.” https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/stanzas/Guiterman, Arthur. “On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness.” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1930/03/22/on-the-vanity-of-earthly-greatnessNash, Ogden. “A Word to Husbands.” https://www.poetry.com/poem/54402/a-word-to-husbandsParker, Dorothy. “One Perfect Rose.” https://poets.org/poem/one-perfect-rose

April is National Poetry Month, and today we're discussing poems that help us understand, manage, and recover from anxiety dreams. We'll compare Edgar Allan Poe's "A Dream within a Dream" and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Pains of Sleep" to help us distinguish an anxiety dream from a nightmare. We'll use the opening lines of Endymion by John Keats to explore a strategy for restoring calm after a stressful experience, and we'll end with Susan Coolidge's advice in "New Every Morning" for making each day a new beginning, even after a bad night. Wishing you all a Happy National Poetry Month, and sweet dreams!Image:"The Nightmare" by Henry Fuseli, 1781. Resources:Cleveland Clinic. “Anxiety Dreams: Why We Have Them and How to Stop Them.” 23 October 2025.Coleridge, Samuel Taylor.  “The Pains of Sleep.”Coolidge, Susan. “New Every Morning.”Keats, John. Endymion. Poe, Edgar Allan. “A Dream within a Dream.” Women’s March. “Protest Safety Training Series: Situational Awareness.” 

Valentine's Day is stressful. It demands big public gestures and celebrates romance while ignoring other kinds of love. But not here at Literative. Today we’ll read several poems that explore the complexity of love, all kinds of love, and we'll make Valentine’s Day safe for introverts and single people.ResourcesElizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese.Robert Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays.”Mary Oliver, "Wild Geese." Marge Piercy, “To Be of Use.”

Today we continue our Normal Plus series with Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way and the morning pages, a powerful tool for clearing your mind, outrunning your inner Censor, and unblocking your creativity.ResourcesJulia Cameron, The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher CreativityJulia Cameron LiveTara Mohr, Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create, and Lead Poetry Foundation, "On Ntozake Shange: 'She Did Not Sound Like Anybody Else, Ever'Kerry Ann Rockquemore, Faculty Success ProgramJen Sincero, You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome LifeJ.D. Edwin and Joe Bunting, "Write or Die: A Replacement for the Tool that Conquers Procrastination?The Write Practice, Write or Else Tool

Today we remember Renee Nicole Good through poetry: her own award-winning poem from 2020 and new poems by Cornelius Eady and Amanda Gorman.Renee Nicole GoodPoem: "On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs"About Renee Nicole Good: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/we-had-whistles-they-had-guns-says-wife-of-minnesota-woman-killed-by-ice-agentCornelius EadyPoem: "Renee Nicole Good is Murdered"About Cornelius Eady: https://poets.org/poet/cornelius-eadyAbout Cave Canem: https://www.nationalbook.org/people/cave-canem/#fullBioAmanda GormanPoem: "For Renee Nicole Good, Killed by I.C.E. on Jan. 7, 2026"About Amanda Gorman: https://poets.org/poet/amanda-gormanWebsite: https://www.theamandagorman.com/Audre LordeEssay: "Poetry is Not a Luxury"About Audre Lorde: https://poets.org/poet/audre-lorde