"It would be tragic not to realize the extent of man’s dependence on the arts."
—Wallace Stevens, "Relations Between Poetry and Painting"

Because most varieties of art inform and cross-reference each other—visual artists, for example, typically have other creative passions like gardening, classical guitar, writing—this month we celebrate National Poetry Month.

Check the Academy of American Poets’ website for NPM events and celebrations. Coming up April 17 is Poem in Your Pocket Day.

The Academy of American Poets has some great resources on its site, including a National Poetry Almanac that devotes a section to Poetry and Art. My favorite subject within this category is visual art’s (more specifically, Picasso’s) influence on Gertrude Stein. A friend of Picasso’s, and ever the experimental writer, Stein forayed into "verbal Cubism" in her 1914 book, Tender Buttons—poems modeled after visual effects she observed in the artist’s paintings.