Local And Lyrical

Why you should celebrate National Poetry Month with Florida writers

April showers bring May flowers as well as National Poetry Month. 

“While poetry may not cure the ills of the world, it can help people cope by providing creative outlets that can turn brutality into beauty with the simple turn of a good phrase,” says Katherine Nelson-Born, the Northwest Florida Poet Laureate from 2020 to 2023.

Nelson-Born serves as the president and founder of the Northwest Florida Poets (NWFP), which is a chapter of the Florida State Poets Association (FSPA), a nonprofit organization spreading poetry to the masses.

“The NWFP chapter of the FSPA is committed to helping others hone their craft and to promoting creative expression as a means of improving mental and physical well-being,” says Nelson-Born.

The chapter celebrates the Florida Panhandle—a region claiming the Emerald Coast’s beaches, woodlands, and Scenic Highway bluffs.

“More than ever, coastal communities need poets who portray the resilience of the human spirit in dealing with climate change,” says Claire Massey, an NWFP member and award-winning writer. “The NWFP offers a collective body of work that inspires a sense of wonder and furthers the quest for understanding ourselves and our place in the natural world.”

In celebration of National Poetry Month and Earth Week, the chapter invites community members to participate in the blending of music, nature, and creative expression. Their Earth Day poetry programming, inspired by Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” will occur virtually and in person April 16-22.

“The power of poetry is far-reaching and linked to improved self-awareness, increased positive social actions, and healthier functioning,” says Nelson-Born.   

Poetry Book Recommendations by Florida writers

Awake in the Sacred Night: Stories and Poems (2025)
by Lori Zavada and Claire Massey

Awake in the Sacred Night is a unique collaboration from multi-genre writers and Emerald Coast locals Lori Zavada and Claire Massey. In this braid of poems, flash fiction, and short essays, the reader ventures across the authors’ personal and geographical landscapes. Emotions and senses are stirred at once, and the result is a showcase of all the mystery, oddities, and otherwordliness of the places we call home, and all the places we’ve been in extension. 

Bone Geometry (2023)
by Katherine Nelson-Born
(2024 Royal Palm Literary Awards Bronze prize-winning poetry collection)

From the swamp to the cemetery, from wild strawberries to blackberry cobbler, former Northwest Florida Poet Laureate Katherine Nelson-Born takes the reader on a distinctly deep-South journey in Bone Geometry. Beyond a journey of place, though, this is an emotional metamorphosis; the speaker confronts painful ancestral and personal histories and finds healing in the process. 

How small, confronting morning  (2021) 

by Lola Haskins

Lola Haskins engages with the tradition of ecopoetry in her fourteenth poetry collection. Acclaimed poet of the natural world W.S. Merwin writes that Haskins “[reveals], in image after image, the dream behind the waking world.” This dreamscape is that of inland Florida, where flora and fauna strike awe and wonder into the speaker. Published by Jacar Press, How Small, Confronting Morning belongs in the canon of Floridian environmental writing.

Need more reasons to read poetry?

Nourishment is a necessity. Similar to food, poetry has the ability to nourish us. There are countless meals—and poems—out there, which means there will be some you dislike but others that leave you craving more.

Take a vacation. A poem is a ticket inviting you someplace new, even if the trip only lasts for a sonnet’s 14 lines or a haiku’s 17 syllables.

Slow down. Instead of scrolling or skimming, poetry invites us to savor language. Note the texture of sentences. Are the words bitter? What could be sweeter than taking your time to find out?

Poetry is like a little black dress. Poems are read at funerals, weddings, and everywhere else. Like that staple dress in your closet, a poem is good for any occasion. 

You aren’t alone. We can all relate to being alive. Poetry has the power to scoop us out of our loneliness and sit us down altogether.