Thursday's Three on Poetry

National Poetry Month (April) has come and gone but there were so many events and so many wonderful items on the Web that there is no doubt some of us missed a few. Thursday's Three, therefore, offers a trio of poetry-related posts that are worth a look and a listen.

✭ In his interview with The Dooryard, Vermont Poet Laureate Sydney Lea urged new readers of poetry to "relax". He also encouraged readers to "move on to some other poem" if the one you're reading "confuses you". Great suggestions! Read "'I am a man saying something to other men and women.' Talking with Vermont Poet Laureate Sydney Lea".

"Monday Muse: Vermont's Poet Laureate", Writing Without Paper, June 18, 2012

✭ What could be better than free verse? New York City's The Village Voice set up a Dial-a-Poem line with number prompts that connected callers to recordings of poets reciting their poems. The poets included David Lehman, Philip Levine, Tom Sleigh, Joshua Mehigan, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Victoria Redel, Jonathan Galassi, Marie Howe, John Allman, Suzanne Cleary, Donna Masini, Billy Collins, and Edward Hirsch. Read "The Poetry  Issue: Free Verse — A New York Miscellany" for the text of the poems and the recordings.

✭ Bob Hicok's "To Roanoke with Johnny Cash", which ends with the line "And the road was the color of him", appeared at Acid Free Pulp. Try reading it aloud to get a sense of its rhythm.