“Often I think of the beautiful town / That is seated by the sea; / Often in thought go up and down / The pleasant streets of that dear old town, / And my youth comes back to me.” 

National English Honors Society (NEHS), formally known as Beta Omicron Kappa, stations volunteers at entrances throughout the school to pass out poems for Poem in Your Pocket Day. This event takes place every year at the end of April — National Poetry Month; this year, it fell on April 29. The event is held in celebration of poetry and poets like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose poem “My Lost Youth” celebrates the spirit of youth while also reflecting on a loss of innocence. 

“[Last year], I got a poem in my pocket, and it was pretty cool. It was about chocolate. I remember what it was, and I enjoyed reading it. This year, I [wanted] to take part in the [activity] as well,” sophomore Srinidi Sripada said.

As the school year comes to an end, Poem in Your Pocket Day is a reminder of individuals’ participation in the living art of poetry. For students, keeping poems in their pockets fosters a sense of community and deepens interest in poetry. 

“The importance of Poem in Your Pocket Day is [to celebrate] poetry as a form of literature. I think that poetry is underappreciated. Showing people that poetry can be something as simple as carrying a poem in your pocket the entire day [and] seeing poetry in the morning, right before you walk into school makes it accessible, because there [are] a lot of kids that probably don’t engage with poetry,” NEHS vice president and senior Ryan Shabani said. “We hand them a poem, they take it, put it in their pocket, read it and maybe later on, they’ll come back to it and think about the message for them.”

April is also National Poetry Month — NEHS celebrated at the beginning of the month with Jazz Poetry Night and a poetry-themed bulletin board.  

“Anyone can be a part of poetry. There are so many different types. There’s spoken word poetry [and] there’s formal poetry. You don’t have to have every single line or stanza rhyming. It can be an open structure. Generally, poetry is accessible,” Shabani said.