5 Relevant Poems to Spark Classroom Conversations

Posted on April 23, 2024

Take your students to one of the world's largest literary celebrations without leaving the classroom! April is National Poetry Month, and with these five rousing poems from around the globe, you can ignite your students' imaginations and turn National Poetry Month into an international affair.

• Dominican poet Frank Báez has violent encounters with cops and fans in "Self-Portrait." Above, Báez recites the poem in Spanish
  
• Japan's Nomura Kiwao tries to get back to nature but finds himself at the mall in "Riverwilt"
• Danyil Zadorozhnyi reads aloud his "Letter to Ukraine"
• Iranian-Mexican poet Mohsen Emadi is chased by his own poem through his former city in "The Poem"
• Also in Mexico, the "rock-star" poet Luis Felipe Fabre delivers a scathing take on the drug trade in "Notes on a Zombie Cataclysm"

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