A day to carry a poem in your pocket

Terry Hankins Poet Beatriz Lagos looks over some of her writings. She is organizing “Poem in Your Pocket Day” on April 17. Zoom Photo

April is National Poetry Month, bringing together poets, writers, schools and libraries to celebrate poetry and its cultural importance.

Thursday, April 17 is “Poem in Your Pocket Day,” which asks people to carry a poem in their pocket and read it aloud to friends and co-workers. This is the first year that Poem in Your Pocket Day will be a national event. It originated in New York.

Petaluma poet Beatriz Lagos is responsible for organizing the local Poem in Your Pocket day. Lagos, an award-winning poet and educator, is passionate about poetry.

“All of us are living in anxiety in this moment in time. Poetry gives us refuge. It's nice that people take the time to write and read poetry,” said Lagos.

Six Sonoma County poets have already signed on to help Lagos on Poem in Your Pocket Day by reading poems at local coffee shops, stores, and restaurants. Lagos has been busy spreading the word about the event, which she describes as serious, but casual. She has even gotten many teachers involved, discussing and writing poems with their students.

Geri Digiorno, Sonoma County's former poet laureate and organizer of the annual Petaluma Poetry Walk, will be participating in Poem in Your Pocket Day. She believes the event will be well received by Petalumans.

“It seems like a really good idea to me. Poetry can change the world. One poem can save the world. It can save one person,” she said. “A poem is strong and straight. It can really reach people.”

Born in Argentina, Lagos was surrounded by poetry at a very young age because her father was a poet.

“I grew up with poetry. I was an artist of expressing the poetry of others,” she said.

In 1976, widowed with two children, she left Argentina and moved to the United States.

“I came for freedom. I came to escape the military dictatorship and create a better life for my daughters,” she said.

Beginning in the 1980s, Lagos was asked to speak at the World Congress of Poets about metaphors, images and the creative process of poetry. She traveled to Greece, Spain and Italy and spoke with world-renowned poets.

In the late 1980s, Lagos lived out a lifelong dream and moved to Spain. She planned to return after two years but ended up staying for nine years. Living in Hita, Spain, she continued to write poetry and novels. She also founded the House of Poets, a place for poets to stay and visit when in Hita.

Fluent in both Spanish and English, Lagos writes her poems in each language specifically; she does not translate anything.

In 1996, Lagos returned to Petaluma. She has been nominated twice to be a Sonoma County poet laureate.

With degrees from Sonoma State University and the University of California, Berkeley, Lagos has taught Spanish and writing to all ages of students, from kindergartners to the university level. She created a program used to teach Spanish to young children that is still used in the U.S. and Japan.

As an accomplished poet, writer and educator, Lagos has accomplished more in her lifetime than many ever will. She is an inspiration to both friends and fellow poets.

Lagos strongly encourages everyone to participate in Poem in Your Pocket Day.

“It is a break in daily life, a moment of meditation or a funny moment if the poem is comical.”

For more information about Poem in Your Pocket day, visit www.poets.org. For more information on Beatriz Lagos, visit her Web site at www.beatrizla gos.com.

(Contact Casey Pomicpic at argus@arguscourier.com)