Celebrate Poetry in Chicago

Every month is Poetry Month in Chicago. The City of Broad Shoulders is home to the Poetry Foundation, which publishes “Poetry” magazine, plus constant spoken word events and workshop opportunities. We’re on it year-round. But since April is actually National Poetry Month, consider diving in deeper.

Our Favorite Chicago Poems

Some classic and more contemporary lyric odes to the complicated city we love. 

“Chicago” by Carl Sandburg

✒️ Favorite line: “Hog Butcher for the World … City of the Big Shoulders”

“Chicago’s Congo” by Frank Marshall Davis

✒️ Favorite line: “Chicago who wears her skyscrapers like a necklace ...”

“Chicago: City on the Make” by Nelson Algren

✒️ Favorite line: “Chicago … Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies, but never a lovely so real.”

“We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

✒️ Favorite line: The whole thing! (It’s short.)

“Chicago and December” by W.S. Dipiero

✒️ Favorite line: “the great stone lions outside monumentally pissed by jumbo wreaths and ribbons”

“whenever i’m at that land is chicago” by Jose Olivarez

✒️ Favorite line: “underneath my gym shoes. is a trail of salt. that last sentence is a test.”

“eschatology” by Eve L. Ewing

✒️ Favorite line: “i’ll miss crossing guards ushering the grown folks too, like ducklings”

Poetry Events All Month Long

Chicago Public Library and plenty more organizations are hosting readings, workshops, lectures, and performances throughout the month.