Explore the highlights of previous Poetry & the Creative Mind celebrations, including photos as well as lists of poems that were read.

2005 Benefit
2006 Benefit
2007 Benefit
2008 Benefit
2009 Benefit
2010 Benefit
2011 Benefit
2012 Benefit
2013 Benefit

On April 17, 2013, the Academy of American Poets held its 11th annual benefit reading, Poetry & the Creative Mind, at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. Noted actors, musicians, journalists, and artists participated in this extraordinary evening celebrating poetry's vital place in American culture. The reading celebrates and raises funds to support National Poetry Month, established by the Academy in 1996 and now the largest literary celebration in the world.

Special guest readers were Jad Abumrad, Mario Batali, Dick Cavett, Patricia Clarkson, Tyne Daly, Jake Gyllenhaall, Glen Hansard, National Student Poet Claire Lee, Stew, Rose Styron, Amber Tamblyn, and Kathleen Turner. Calvin Trillin served as master of ceremonies.

Opening Remarks
Calvin Trillin, Master of Ceremonies
Jennifer Benka, Executive Director
Eunice J. Panetta, Chairman of the Board

Claire Lee
Natasha Trethewey, Vespertina Cognitio
Claire Lee, Solubility Rules

Rose Styron
Emily Dickinson, To make a prairie (1755)
Jorie Graham, Sundown

Dick Cavett
Philip Larkin, Aubade
Robert Frost, Provide, Provide

Tyne Daly
Jean Valentine, La Chalupa, the Boat
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Love is Not All (Sonnet XXX)
Stanley Kunitz, The Round

Amber Tamblyn
Jeffrey McDaniel, The Quiet World
Jack Hirschman, Path

Stew
John Berryman, A Professor's Song
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring and Fall
Kenneth Koch, You Want a Social Life, with Friends

Mario Batali
Joy Harjo, Perhaps the World Ends Here
Jim Harrison, Cold August
Tony Hoagland, When Dean Young Talks About Wine
Jim Harrison, Twilight

Patricia Clarkson
Howard Altmann, Quarters
Howard Altmann, Island
Howard Altmann, Eating Strawberries

Jad Abumrad
Fanny Howe, Veteran
Franz Wright, Publication Date

Kathleen Turner
Walt Whitman, On the Beach at Night Alone
Lucille Clifton, blessing the boats
Langston Hughes, In Time of Silver Rain

Jake Gyllenhaal
Mary Oliver, Wild Geese
Frank O'Hara, Ave Maria

Glen Hansard
Leonard Cohen, How to Speak Poetry
Patrick Kavanagh, On Raglan Road