Poems Aloud
Starting a Poems Aloud Group
I love the freedom of Poems Aloud, that a group of people can find their own way into and around the poems. -Arlington, Virginia
Taking part in Poems Aloud is easy: simply gather together with friends and family to read poems aloud to one another. Poems Aloud readers have met in homes and libraries, in the workplace, the classroom, and around the dinner table. Readers as young as five and as mature as ninety-one have enjoyed Poems Aloud gatherings, in small intimate circles and in public forums, in established and newly-formed book groups, from Seattle, Washington to Copenhagen, Denmark.
Once you have your group together, just follow these steps to get started:
- Sign in, select from the featured titles, and receive your Poems Aloud discount when placing an order from the Copper Canyon website.
- Distribute books to your reading group.
- Gather and read poems aloud.
- Ask participants to enjoy the Poems Aloud resources and share their comments and suggestions online.
- Check www.coppercanyonpress.org/PoemsAloud for new additions to the program.
What Poems Aloud participants are saying:
I just sat on my deck in the sun yesterday and read to a friend from Neruda's "Book of Questions." Would love to expand the reading circle! -Friday Harbor, Washington
Great idea, and Neruda will work beautifully; our group will combine Poems Aloud with dinner and Il Postino―reading before, during, and after dinner, and then the film. -Selma, Indiana
10 people, April 12th. Neruda and cheesecake. -Madison, Wisconsin
Guests read poems from other collections as well. In
this way, we got into the singing air many sides of this near-infinite
poet: the love poet, the social protest poet, the political poet, the
nature mystic, the critic of society, the self-examiner, the visionary-and-practical
confronter of the big moments of passage in human life, birth, love,
sex, spiritual confusion and discovery, old age, death. This, the fact
that everyone learned something unforgettable about Neruda, and the
pleasure of the bonding we experienced as a group through Neruda's voice,
made the evening exhilarating.
-Boulder, Colorado
We had assembled a diverse crowd: people with doctorates in Medieval literature and literary theory, high school Spanish teachers, art historians, poets, art teachers, literacy educators, and businessmen. We were truly an amalgamation of readers. Because we read for nearly three hours-past midnight-and no one's interest seemed to wane, I believe this was a testament to the interesting nature of the project, to the compelling experience of hearing people read out loud. -San Pedro, California