April is National Poetry Month and the Friends of the Barbara Rose Johns Farmville/ Prince Edward Community Library are celebrating. The Friends partnered with the NEA Big Read grantees by donating money for prizes for the NEA Big Read: Heart of Virginia Poetry Contest.

The Poetry Contest is in response to many requests received by Friends’ volunteers during the April 2018 Poem in Your Pocket Day. “Last year, we had several people in town ask if the poems that we were distributing were from local poets,” said Vicky Page, a Friends volunteer. “Several people suggested that we have a poetry contest for 2019.” The Friends brought that suggestion to the Longwood University’s Greenwood Library staff and the poetry contest was incorporated into the NEA Big Read: Heart of Virginia activities. The Central Virginia Regional Library branches will accept poem entries through Friday, April 19. Contest entry forms are available at the library’s Farmville and Buckingham branches. The contest is open to persons ages 15 and up. Contest winners will be announced Thursday, April 25.

The Friends are also taking the lead for Poem in Your Pocket Day which will be celebrated Thursday, April 25, in the Town of Farmville, at the Barbara Rose Johns Farmville/Prince Edward Community Library, and on campus at Longwood University. Poems with themes of love, the seasons, nature, and children’s poems will be rolled and tied with ribbons and handed out by downtown merchants or at the two participating libraries. In addition, Friends’ volunteers will stroll up and down Main Street handing out poems in celebration of the day. This is the fourth year that Poem in Your Pocket Day has been celebrated in the Town of Farmville.

The Friends will post public domain poems on their Friends of the Barbara Rose Johns Farmville/Prince Edward Community Library Facebook page each day during the month of April.