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Celebrate National Poetry Month in Kansas City

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April is National Poetry Month, and our city offers many landmarks celebrating the art form.

Matthew Fowler Getty Images

The Central Library of the Kansas City Public Library (14 W. 10th St., Kansas City, Mo., 816.701.3400), housed in the former First National Bank of Kansas City, is one of the city’s most beautiful downtown landmarks. The library is an architectural masterpiece with reading rooms, research areas, a cafe and a rooftop view of the city skyline complete with a giant life-size chess set! But the children’s department is the most special section of the library for families. Enter through the pages of a book to a place where kids will discover a wonderful reading area organized by age and interests and that offers many hands-on activities. This library is so special that even the parking garage is unique! The Community Bookshelf painted along the south wall of the Central Library’s parking garage (on 10th Street between Wyandotte Street and Baltimore Avenue) displays book spines featuring 22 titles from classics to local interest, including The Collection of Poems by Langston Hughes (an ideal photo op for Poetry Month).

Mark Twain, the famous Missouri author and humorist, also wrote over 120 poems. Visit the Mark Twain statue on the corner of 10th & Central in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, just a few blocks away from the Central Library and its parking garage, which is adorned with classic book titles—including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

First Fridays in the Crossroads are a monthly celebration of the arts in downtown. The event opens local art galleries to locals and tourists alike. Throughout the district, you may enjoy poetry readings, dance, painting, sculpture, music and more.

Christopher Smith

“In Flanders Fields,” a poem by John McCrae, became the signature of WWI. The poem memorializes the fallen soldier with the lines, “In Flanders fields the poppies blow … Between the crosses, row on row…” After the war, the American Legion adopted the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy as the U.S. national emblem of remembrance. The National WWI Museum and Memorial chose to display 9,000 poppies under the Paul Sunderland Bridge, a clear walkway visitors cross to enter the museum, each flower representing 1,000 combatant deaths during WWI.

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