Each U.S. Poet Laureate has, during their tenure, developed at least one project to help spread the love of poetry in the nation. Robert Pinsky, U.S. Poet Laureate from 1997, worked in collaboration with Boston University, the Poetry Society of America and the Library of Congress to create the Favorite Poem Project. For one year, the project accepted contributions from the general public of their favorite poems. During that one year open call for submissions, over 18,000 Americans wrote to the project to share their favorite poems. The respondents were a truly diverse cross section of America, ranging in age from 5 to 97, from kindergarteners to Ph.D.”s, mothers to lawyers to doctors to construction workers. From those submissions, the Favorite Poem Project has created three anthologies of poetry, and nearly fifty videos of favorite poems being read by everyday people. The project also maintains an online database of Favorite Poems, which still accepts submissions online.

The Favorite Poem Project includes a section just for teachers with lesson plans for sharing poetry with grade levels from kindergarten through high school, suggestions for class and school events using the Favorite Poem Project as a base, and ways to bring poetry into the other subjects that you teach with cross disciplinary lessons and suggestions.

The project was launched with a series of five poetry readings in different cities across the U.S., and since then there have been over 1000 Favorite Poem readings nationwide. Want to host your own Favorite Poem Reading? The project has suggestions and offers help in setting up.