Have you been outside lately? It's Spring! We're pretty sure it's here to stay this time!

And with spring comes renewal, and growth, and, yes, more work when it comes to farming and gardening. But that, too, can be a blessing, and an impetus for poetry.

So, for today's Poetry Friday entry, we celebrate the season and the work that goes with it with Yvonne Trainer's "Planting" (from her collection Everything Happens At Once).

Now, don't waste the season away. Go plant something, and let it grow. 

The baseball season is in full swing! But for some, poetry holds an allure that organized sports cannot compete with.

This Poetry Friday, we turn our gaze to the fairly rare intersection of childhood, literature, and sports.

Please enjoy Michael Estok's sensitive exploration of growing up poetically inclined in a childhood community of sports enthusiasts, "Out in left field for the Canadian poets' baseball league," from his 1987 collection Paradise Garage.

Now go outside and enjoy the day. And bring some poetry along, just in case. 

For the first Poetry Friday of May, Renato Trujillo pushes us to face our demons with "Puffs of Smoke" (from his 1987 collection Behind the Orchestra).

Please enjoy.