By Monica Torres

“Poetry is a living, breathing force that can light up the city. O, Miami is its platform.” Alberto Ibargüen, President John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Poetry comes to the city! April, the cruelest month, is around the corner, but it’s not cruel at all because it’s National Poetry Month. And, this means O, Miami Poetry Festival hits the town!

O, Miami attempts to deliver a poem to every person in the Magic City. In 2011, poems were flown behind planes, dropped out of helicopters, sewed into clothing, and attached them to every single bus in Miami-Dade County. O, Miami produced events with actors (James Franco); choreographers (Jonah Bokaer, Rashaun Mitchell); artists (Anne Carson, Sam Winston); and, yes, poets (W.S. Merwin, Tracy K. Smith, Raúl Zurita). The festival was covered nationally and internationally by The New Yorker, NPR’s Morning Edition, Dwell magazine, Best American Poetry, and the Associated Press, and chronicled in a new Knight Foundation report.

The “Airplane Poems”

There is poet in everyone, and one of the great things about the festival is that everyone and anyone can and should get involved, and deliver a little piece of their spirit to the burning flame. With all its water, skylines, sunshine, alcohol-billboard-ads grazing the highways, babes-in-stilletoes, hipsters, and graffiti from Hialeah to Brickell- this city is filled with contradictions, a rich breeding ground for art.

“Poetry Bombing” with Augustina Woodgate for O, Miami

Pull out your notebooks, or Blackberrys, go somewhere quiet in nature, and meditate on your love affair or love-hate relationship with the city. Just write! (Or, in the eternal words of Madonna, “Express Yourself!”)

Come all ye poets:

University of Wynwood is a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to advancing contemporary literature in Miami, FL. UW is made possible through support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami-Dade County, The Betsy Hotel, and the City of Miami Beach.

The poems can be funny (examples via WLRN):

Missed the bus because

it was so late, it came

early. #ThatsSoMiami

— Ariel Henriquez Imagine: some of us

are not on vacation.

#ThatsSoMiami

— Zach Hickman

Sad:

#ThatsSoMiami, at 9 a.m., a dead dog

in the middle of NW 7th Ave, two

constructions workers standing

beside it, drinking cans of Busch Light.

— Kate Ann Heidelbach #ThatsSoMiami, the way the sun

rises through the window

breaks away the hidden

story I was trying not to tell.

— Kate Ann Heidelbach

Funny & sad:

Abuela tells me

I’m too fat, hands

me a pastelito de guayaba.

#ThatsSoMiami

— Caridad McCormick Even the mannequins

are surgically enhanced.

#ThatsSoMiami

— Katherine Villari

The poems can be anything they want. That’s the beauty of poetry. See you there and bring your poetic spirits (berets and clove cigarettes may or may not be included)!

A brand-new series of projects, interventions, and events that will once again re-imagine what’s possible in the presentation of contemporary poetry, including:

