In One Ear: A poem a day

Poetry alert: April is National Poetry Month and Oregon offers a Tele-Poem Hotline. A new poem is read by an Oregon Poet Laureate every day, Smithsonian Magazine said.

Just call 503-928-7008 to hear the day’s selection. The previous day’s offering is also available, as are others in the poetry archive. The hotline received over 2,000 calls in the first two weeks of April.

The idea is the brainchild of Oregon Poet Laureate Anis Mojgani, inspired by the coronavirus pandemic, when there were no live poetry readings. Despite delays, the project was launched in 2022.

“I was honestly surprised by how quickly and lovingly so many people seemed to respond and connect to the prospect of calling a number and hearing a poem,” Mojgani told The Oregonian in 2022. “Which is lovely and, I think, rather telling of our current lives — that a few minutes of a stranger sharing into our ear a moment of personal reflection, sharing through something as cold as a telephone a moment of quieting intimacy — reveals feasibly a something of want in us.” (Photo: Anis Mojgani)