THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
Forgive me, Gwendolyn Brooks. I know you get annoyed that this is the poem a disproportiate number of textbook and anthology editors have chosen to represent your entire body of work, but I just really like this one. Plus it fits nicely in the pockets of strangers on the street.
You can find this and other pocket-prone poems for your own Poem in Your Pocket Day celebration in print-your-own-at-home PDF format here. I am also very excited about a project Citizen Hope is doing in San Francisco on April 30 — organizing volunteers to read poems to elementary school students in San Francisco: Check it out here.
Poem in Your Pocket Day is brought to you by the Academy of American Poets, the same folks who bring you National Poetry Month and www.poets.org.