Welcome to Common Threads: Seven Poets and a Wealth of Readers. Common Threads is a program of MassPoetry that seeks to have 10,000 people in the state read these seven poems in the month of April, National Poetry Month:

• In the Waiting Room by Elizabeth Bishop
• Samurai Song by Robert Pinsky
• The Lost Pilot by James Tate
• Occupation by Suji Kwock Kim
• Vita Nova by Louise Glück
• Love Song: I and Thou by Alan Dugan
• New England Ode by Kevin Young

All the poets have strong connections to Massachusetts.

Each individual and organization that signed up to hold a Common Threads event can download the kit with the poems, discussion questions about the poems and critical material as well as an audio clip of the poem. Many schools, senior centers, libraries, and book clubs have signed up to read the poems.

To get started, you may click on any of the individual poems above and this will take you to the section of the kit containing the text of this poem, discussion questions, and information about the poet. Or, you may click on the Table of Contents to see all the sections of the poetry kit and proceed from there.

• Get Started: Table of Contents
• Download a PDF of the entire Common Threads kit.
• Download this poster to spread the word about your Common Threads group.
• Common Threads programs in your community
• Read more on Common Threads
• How to start your own poetry reading club.