The fourth annual Salisbury Poetry Week will return this week. 

Salisbury Poetry Week is a celebration of both the written and spoken word through a series of events open to all free of charge.

"Poetry is an integral part of our lives from song lyrics to commercials, from scripts to Shakespeare, from love letters to our children’s bedtime stories—poetry is truly at the center of our communicative lives," a news release states. "Not only a communication tool, but a craft that allows for empathy, poetry reaches into our center, highlighting that which is universal in all of us – humanity."

All Salisbury Poetry Week Events will take place on Zoom.  More information and and registration for these events is available online.

Christopher Salerno, award-winning author, editor, poet, and professor at William Patterson University is the 2021 Poet-in-Residence.  The author of five books of poetry, his forthcoming book, "The Man Grave," won the Lexi Rudnitsky Award from Persea Books and will be published in 2021.   

 Thursday, April 8 7:30 to 9 p.m.: This year, the event will introduce attendees to the three finalists for Salisbury Youth Poet Laureate, enjoy readings from Eastern Shore poets Wendy Mitman Clarke, Tina Raye Dayton, Christopher T. George, Sharon K. Sheppard, & S. Scott Whitaker, as well as Salisbury Poet Laureate, Nancy Mitchell, and 2021 Salisbury Poet-in-Residence, Christopher Salerno.

Friday, April 9 7:30 to 9:00 p.m.:  Drop in on this Salisbury Poetry Week Open Mic Night which has become a yearly event.  Kick back and listen or share a poem from the Salisbury Poetry Week Zoom stage.  Signups available in Zoom. Hosted by special guests, poets Amber Green & Sista Big.

Saturday, April 10^th 10 to 11:30 a.m.:  The Eye, the World and the Self: Ecopoetry with JoAnn Balingit

 In this generative poetry workshop, participants will read & listen to poems by Arthur Sze, Natalie Diaz, Juliana Spahr and Danez Smith to consider the possibilities and necessity of ecopoetry. Then, in two writing periods, participants will respond to prompts in the belief that "Sometimes in gazing afar,/ we locate ourselves." Optional: bring a photograph of a childhood landscape, plant or being.

1 to 2:30 p.m.: Image, Metaphor, and Memory Poetry Workshop with Chrisopher Salerno 

Join Salisbury Poet-in-Residence, author, editor and William Patterson University professor, Christopher Salerno for a Salisbury Poetry Week generative poetry workshop which will consider how imagery and metaphor help bring art to memory in developing moving and dynamic poems. 

Sunday, April 11 1 to 2:30 p.m.: Join the Eastern Shore Writers Association for a discussion group. Attendees  study a well-known poet each month, exploring their work independently, then meet on Zoom for coffee, share favorite poems by that poet, and discuss their work.  The April discussion focuses on the work of Salisbury Poet-in-Residence Mr. Salerno, and will be facilitated by ESWA President, Tara A. Elliott.  A excerpt from Mr. Salerno's latest book, "The Man Grave," will be sent to all who register.