The University of Kansas Libraries

Poem a Day: Notes on Selection and Further Reading

When the committee began planning for this site, our main criterion was love; we wanted to share some of our favorites, as well as some of the favorite poems we gathered from KU Libraries faculty and staff.

We had lots of ideas for poets and poems to include, but found ourselves limited (because of a lack of time and funds for copyright clearance) mostly to poetry in the public domain - basically, poems published before 1923 (with one or two exceptions).

Here are some other poets we would have loved to include, along with links for further reading:

• Jorge Luis Borges - The Garden of Forking Paths (an online resource from The Modern Word)
• Lucille Clifton (at Poets.org)
• Billy Collins (www.billy-collins.com)
• e. e. cummings (at Modern American Poetry)
• Ted Kooser (www.tedkooser.net)
• Heather Ross Miller (interview and poems at the North Carolina Arts Council)
• John Moritz (at the Kansas Arts Commission's Ad Astra Poetry Project, pdf)
• Mary Oliver (at Modern American Poetry)
• Charles Simic (Library of Congress web guide)
• William Stafford (at Friends of William Stafford)
• Mark Strand (at the Poetry Foundation)
• Dylan Thoms (at Poets.org)
• Alice Walker (at Poets.org)

These are a few of our favorites - come share yours at the Favorite Poems Open Mic Reading on April 30 (details).

KU Libraries collections contain more than 28,000 books of or about poetry. Throughout April, a special selection of poetry books will be available for checkout in Watson Library near the 3rd floor service desk.

Members of the organizing committee for National Poetry Month at KU Libraries are Julie Buchsbaum, Courtney Foat, Sarah Kanning, Christen Caton, Kathy Graves, Joy Mapes and Brett Poe. Contact Sarah Kanning (kanning@ku.edu) for more information.

Return to KU Libraries Poem-a-Day main page.