Tuesday, April 12, 2011

"Put An Atheist Poem In Your Pocket" Week

So there are a couple of special days coming up this week, Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday is National Ask-An-Atheist Day, and Thursday is national Poem-In-Your-Pocket Day (April is National Poetry Month, and nobody told me). Turns out, this blog is your one-stop-shopping source for all your weekly atheist and poetry needs. Take some time, root through the archives, find something to carry around for two days.

I'm excited about Ask-An-Atheist Day; Cuttlefish U. does not have an atheist organization, so it might be nice to see what sorts of reactions I get to the sticker. I had a very devout student a few years ago who assured me that I couldn't possibly be an atheist, because I was too kind. It might be nice to have some sort of meaningful atheist presence on campus; Wednesday might be a start.

Poem-In-Your-Pocket day appears to be the brainchild of Poets.org, which is a fun place to poke around if you like poetry. Mind you, I played a bit on their forum a few years ago, and found that for very friendly people, they don't much care for doggerel verse. Serious poets, these people. If you like poetry, they have quite a selection of poems specially sized to print out and carry in your pocket. If you prefer verse, I encourage you to print out enough of mine to hand out to friends or enemies who might not know what a special day Thursday is.

National Poetry Month is also as good an excuse as any for Poets.org to ask for donations, for the support of poetry. There are worse things to donate to, although there is certainly still a need for help further down Maslow's hierarchy in Japan and other places. If you prefer verse to poetry, there's a tip jar over there to the right, but it ain't National Doggerel Month, so no obligation.

5 comments:

entropy said...

I don't imagine I'll be asked to produce an atheist answer or a poem, but I will be oh-so prepared. One-stop shop for sure.

Melissa said...

Ooh! Stickers.

I will try to find something from your archives to carry around. Your book isn't going to fit in my pocket.

Nicole Schrand said...

I'll be sitting proudly at the Virginia Tech Freethinker's Ask an Atheist booth most of the day, with
"The Basis Of Objective Morality (or 20/20 Hindsight)" and maybe some other poems in my pocket. If I have a pocket. If not, I guess it'll be in my backpack.

@Melissa: The stickers are totally awesome. I have a bunch with me right now to distribute at the VT Freethinkers meeting tonight... I hear there's a template you can use to print your own over here.

Cuttlefish said...

You go, Nicole!

I wish we had such a booth here; I want it to come from a student initiative, though. I don't want (and Cuttlefish U. policy is, I think, clear on this) to ever make it look like my students have any pressure to join.

Melissa said...

@Nicole: You better blog about the booth. I need the vicarious experience.