(gentle upbeat music)
-: Hello, English teachers.
Charles R. Smith Jr. here,
winner of the 2025 Award for Poetry from NCTE.
I'm very proud of the award
and I feel like since they gave something to me,
I wanted to give something back.
So, I created a 30 for 30.
30 of my favorite poets, 30 of my favorite poems.
I created both of these lists for teachers
who may fight it hard teaching poetry.
If you've never taught it before
or don't know where to begin,
all you gotta do is go to either list
and just pick anything that you so choose.
We've also included a few questions
that are designed to help create open-ended discussions.
Some of the poems I've read since I was a kid,
some of the poets I still continue to read,
so I hope you enjoy them.
(gentle upbeat music)