Just for the record, the man who wrote, “April is the cruelest month” — this was before April was “National Poetry Month” — T.S. Eliot, was then a bank clerk. Chaucer was a civil servant and Wallace Stevens was an insurance executive.

Two famed poets, essayists and translators — Lydia Davis and Eliot Weinberger — recently read from new work at the True Story: Non-Fiction reading series at the KGB Bar in the East Village. Listen to the audio here.

The Adaptations Project has adapted "Kaddish," which the beat poet published 50 years ago, for the stage. "Kaddish (or The Key in the Window)" is a multimedia one-man show that opens on Thursday night.

On Saturday, the sidewalk ends in Central Park. The author, poet, songwriter and cartoonist Shel Silverstein -- known to many for children's books like Where the Sidewalk Ends -- will be lauded in a, um, "Shelebration" as part of Central Park's SummerStage series.

The First Annual New York Poetry Festival takes place this weekend in and among the green lawns, rows of London Plane trees and historic brick houses of Governors Island. More than 130 poets from across the country will read their work.

As the Middle East continues to feel the tremors of revolution from all across the landscape, Dr. Reza Aslan’s book “Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East” offers a timely look at the role of literature in modern Islam.

The Lower East Side returns to its swinging 1960's roots on Friday by hosting its 16th annual festival of music, poetry, puppets and dance. More than 100 artists will show work at the festival from Friday through Sunday. Check out images of festivals past here.

Haiku by four Staten Island residents have won this year's Freshkills Park Haiku Contest. Contestants were asked to create haiku, which are poems of three lines with five, seven and five syllables, about the landfill-turned park. Click here to see the winning verse.

The New York Public Library officially announced the acquisition of the archives on Friday, which include handwritten notes for Angelou's autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."

Twenty thousand poets and poetry lovers are gathering in Newark’s burgeoning arts district this weekend for the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.  Held once every two years, the festival is the largest poetry event in North America.

Samuel Menashe of Greenwich Village writes poems. Really short poems.