Poem in your Pocket - Review by Alison Cuthbertson

It was early morning close to 9am, when I along with many others were cleaning and getting Poet’s House ready for Poem in Your Pocket Day. At the moment I had been wiping down the glass revolving door having no idea about the event that awaited me. I had been caught by a classmate a few days before and was convinced to volunteer, but I did not know exactly what for. As I continued cleaning, someone shouted “the children will be here any minute! Make sure everything looks nice.” After some rushing around, everyone gathered at the entry way and only a few minutes later the children pours through the doors. Second to fourth grade students from nearby school were visiting to read poetry that they written and published. Their book was entitled We are New York City: a Poetry Anthology by Lower Manhattan Students.
For the first part of the morning there were two classes that split up into separate rooms. I started taking some pictures and slipped into one of the rooms. All the kids were sitting in rows anxiously awaiting their turn to speak. They were led in some tongue twisting excises to get their voices ready for reading. Then one by one every student read their poem aloud. Some were very quiet, shy and nervous, while others seemed to be very excited and spoke loudly. All the poems were so different and wonderful. They made me look at parts of the city differently than I had before. A short poem that really stuck with me was written by Janice Chong called NYC is a Grizzly Bear.
“Are you a monster on
all the streets? Because if you are on my street, don’t break my house.
Why are you a grizzly bear? Is it
because you are noisy? Is it
because you roar and roar?
Or is it
because you are going everywhere
without sleep?”
Once children finished the reading they all went outside for pictures while we volunteers handed out snacks and juice.
The next wave of students arrived but this time other volunteers and I grabbed a bag full of cards that had some of the children’s poems on them. We walked to a near Wholefoods and passed the cars out to passing people. Most everyone was receptive to us and would take to poem. Some people even stopped to ask us what we were doing or what the cards were for. It was nice to be able to share poetry with others and to promote what Poet’s House does. A man even came back and shared his poetry with me which was amazing.