A number of events are planned in P.E.I. to celebrate poetry month in April.

That means a very busy month for the Island's Poet Laureate, Deirdre Kessler, including a stop Monday at CBC Mainstreet P.E.I.

"Since we think not enough poetry is read, it's great to have a whole month in which there is a focus on poetry in schools and in libraries," she told Angela Walker.

Kessler said part of the reason poetry isn't read as much today is because it isn't taught as much.

"We don't memorize whole long poems in school anymore the way other generations did," she said. "There's a lot of poetry in song of course, so it's not as if we're without poetry, but it's all usually associated with song rather than the spoken word."

Some of the events planned this month include poetry for children, open mic readings, a senior's event, and classroom readings in schools.

Kessler has a pretty simple wish for poetry month: "That everyone will read a poem, or think of a poem, recall a poem, and say it aloud as you're doing the dishes or sweeping the floor."

Monday night Kessler read a poem at the beginning of the Charlottetown City council meeting, part of the nationwide campaign, Poetry City. Thursday, April 13 at 7 p.m. she will be part of the P.E.I. Writers' Guild open mic at Receiver Coffee in Charlottetown.