Ladies and gentlemen, direct from “The Wasteland,” here’s T.S. Eliot to introduce National Poetry Month:
April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land ...
Hey, that sounds like the intro to Financial Literacy Month, also in April. (We always mix those two up.) Regardless, whether you’re a poetry connoisseur, a casual fan or a man from Nantucket, April offers (poetic license alert!) a multifariousness of events. On April 8, Black Mountain Institute brings in Lynn Xu (Greenspun Hall, unlv.edu). “If you have ever believed that organ donation for your lover is not merely useful but kind of hot,” one critic writes, “the poems of Lynn Xu are for you.” Speaking of organs, BMI will also stage a reading of “O, Heart,” a verse drama by UNLV prof Claudia Keelan (April 24, Student Union, unlv.edu). It’s about “a woman’s quest to understand the human heart through her encounters with ... Emily Dickinson, Jane Bowles and the father of modern cardiology," For “Creativity and the Word,” Lee Mallory will read his poems and discuss the creative process (April 27, Whitney Library, lvccld.org). Of course, for some, every month is poetry month. Each Monday, Human Experience opens its mic at The Beat ( the-human-experience.org). The Provoke Infusion series has settled into Bar + Bistro on Tuesdays (see its Facebook page). Word Up! Poetry does its thing at Wake Up Cafe on Wednesdays ( Facebook again). And the Las Vegas Poets Organization throws down Pop-Up Poetry every First Friday at Art Square ( lasvegaspoets.org).