April may be fullest month for Philadelphia poetry

Philadelphia. Poetrydelphia, more like. April is National Poetry Month - so declared in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets - but any month, any week of the year, there's a simmer of poetic endeavor in and around this town to rival anywhere in the United States. World, more like.

It's a convergence. The Internet has ushered in a golden age for poets and poetry. Want to read Chinese poetry? Or the poems of Langston Hughes or Victoria Chang? At the stroke of a key, you can. What the heck is trochaic tetrameter? Wikipedia knows.

The Web has also brought poetry to unprecedented audiences, people of all ages and backgrounds. And it has supercharged a popular-culture movement under way since at least 1975: the celebration of spoken-word poetry and performance, godfathered by rap, hip-hop, and the "slam" movement.

To celebrate poetry month, and give just a taste of the range and excellence found within 50 miles of the city of brotherly and sisterly verse, we offer profiles of seven diverse and wonderful poets. Get a sense of them in print, and then go to a special Web site (www.philly.com/poetrymonth2010) to read their poems - and listen as they read their works aloud.

They include a Pulitzer Prize winner at Princeton University, a senior about to graduate from Temple University, a Guggenheim winner who lives in South Philly, a Web-radio DJ and musician in Germantown, and a language poet at the University of Pennsylvania. So get to know them - and hear them on the Web.

And if you want to leave your computer behind, there's a surge of readings, workshops, open mikes (anyone can come in, sign up, and read), slams (competitive readings), and discussions across the horizon of language arts.

It's ideal for a recession (or any other time): Poetry is usually either cheap or free.

You couldn't list all the April poetry events, though there's a good stab at it at the PhillyPoetry Calendar (www.brownbearsw.com/freecal/PhillyPoetry). Highlights include:

The Monday Poets Reading Series from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Skyline Room of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St., which this week will feature Harry Humes and Tenaya Darlington. Never heard of 'em? Get over there, then!

The 14th annual Poetry Ink at noon next Sunday at the Moonstone Arts Center (110 S. 13th St., www.moonstoneartscenter.org), in which 139 poets will read for two minutes each, starting with Robert Zaller and glissandoing to Orphialasertrella Adams-Taylor.

The Germantown Poetry Festival (www.germantownpoetryfestival.org) on April 17.

A master class by master poet Robert Bly at Arcadia University in Glenside on April 16.

The Speakeasy at Writers House, an open mike every other Wednesday night at 8 (the next one will be April 14) at the far-famed Kelly Writers House at 3805 Locust Walk at Penn (writing.upenn.edu/wh).

A reading featuring Miriam Kotzin and Harriet Levin at 7:30 p.m. April 13 at the Bubble House, 3404 Sansom St.

Three poets (Courtney Bambrick, Terry Culleton, and Michael Steffan) and an open reading next Sunday at the Manayunk Art Center (www.manayunkartcenter.org), 419 Green Lane.

The Fox Chase Reading Series Second Tuesdays Poetry Open Mic, 7 p.m., April 13 at the Red Rooster Inn, 7960 Dungan Road.

A reading at Princeton on April 28 featuring novelist Chang-Rae Lee and eminent poet W.S. Merwin.

Ongoing reading series at places such as the Big Blue Marble bookstore in West Mount Airy, Steel City Coffee House in Phoenixville, Churchill's Artisan Baker & Chocolatier in Pottstown, the Delaware County Institute of Science in Media, the Swarthmore Public Library, and the Gryphon Café in Wayne.