Feel your tummy. Give it a good inquisitive assessment. Can you sense yourself growing fat and happy? April is reaching the end of its second week, and already we have enjoyed much of the written word’s sweet nectar as National Poetry Month makes its mark amongst Louisville’s literary circles. Like a rich milk it doth flow, people. A rich milk. Take some Tums, drink some water – maybe make plans for a healthy palate cleanser in your horizon – and get ready for another course. Former Kentucky Poet Laureate, Lee Pennington, will give a free reading this upcoming Monday, April 16th, at the University of Louisville’s Ekstrom Library. Swing by the Bingham Poetry Room at 3pm for another spoonful of the good stuff.
A native of Eastern Kentucky, Lee Pennington is the published author of over 1,300 poems strewn amongst the pages of some 300 periodicals worldwide. Pennington’s work has also hit the shelves in his numerous poetry collections, including titles such as Wildflower: Poems for Joy and Thigmotropism. As well as displaying an obvious flair for poetry, Pennington has also held lifelong interests as a folklorist and educator and branched out his writing skills as a published playwright, journalist and documentarian.
Pennington’s reading celebrating National Poetry Month is sponsored by the UofL’s Special Collections. A department comprised of Rare Books and Photographic Archives, Special Collections collects, organizes, preserves and provides accessibility to unique, primary source materials – with a particular emphasis on those which document the cultural heritage of the region. With Pennington’s background in regional folklore and documentation, the union is bound to create the kind of recipe that yields a decadent result. Give your tummy a pleasant pat and stop by campus for another taste of National Poetry Month in the Bluegrass.
Image: Courtesy of Louisville Free Public Library www.lfpl.org
