Marshall Public Library Celebrates 25 Years of The Poetry Wall

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) – Calling all Pocatello poets! The Marshall Public Library in Pocatello is celebrating 25 years of their annual Poetry Wall throughout the month of April in honor of National Poetry Month.

Community members of all ages are encouraged to submit their poems for the wall. Elementary students and seniors have already been featured in this year's collection.

"Anyone can be a poet," said Trina Bonman, Associate Director of the Marshall Public Library. "You don't have to write serious poetry, anyone can come up with a few lines of verse. And this is a really cool way for our community to share poetry."

The yearly tradition was started in 2001 by a local librarian and poet, Joan Juskie. Now, the wall stands as an outlet for community members to share their work with others and honor her legacy. After each Poetry Wall, the works are placed in a community collection for people to continue to enjoy.

"We've had entire classes of kids do poetry before, so that's really fun," Bonman said. "Sometimes it's art and poem that goes along with it, we love to see that. Anything, any style, the word poetry where it makes different shapes, or even a few lines. We will take anything and everything and put it up."

You can bring in a paper copy of your poem to the library or submit through email.

"It's just exciting to see what the community comes up with, what they feel like expressing," Bonman said. "It's cool to see that even in a community like Pocatello, Idaho, we have this much poetry to share."

More information about submissions is available on the library website at marshallpl.org.