April 1, 2025, 12:37pm

The American Academy of Poets launched National Poetry Month in 1996. Since then, April has been synonymous in some circles with verse. Even before that, the dawn of spring has felt poetic. Eliot called it the cruelest month, well before the bards Simon and Garfunkel put their paws in the mix. In any event? It’s a good time for rhyme.

Reviving a recent tradition, the fine minds at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux are celebrating the sonnet in style this spring. Every weekday this entire month, you can call the FSG Poetry Hotline and hear an FSG author read a poem, right into your personal ear. 

FSG’s poetry stable includes heavy-hitters, and a list honed over eighty years in business. Marianne Moore, T.S. Eliot, Yusef Komunyakaa and Louise Glück all spent time in the publisher’s stable. More recent additions include Rowan Ricardo Phillips and Frederick Seidel.

In theory, any living member of that cadre could be tapped to speak sweet nothings on the hotline. So you’ll have to call every day in April. Just in case.

I called this morning and heard Adam Plunkett, author of Love and Need: The Life of Robert Frost’s Poetry, reciting a piece by his favorite subject. The author of the capacious critical Frost biography selected “My November Guest” for your listening pleasure. Which, if you haven’t read it, is a great punctuation mark for a grey season. And in my case, a well-timed reminder to get outside. Recommend.

But don’t take me on faith. Call 385-DIAL-FSG (385-342-5374) to listen. Readings will also be featured on Instagram.

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