Poetry came early to me through Mother Goose rhymes. Although my mother never read them from a book, I was taken by the sound and rhythm of her voice the way another feels swept away by a piece of music or the movement of a dancer's body. Later, verse passages from the liturgy and spirituals had a similar effect on me. Today my 7-year-old daughter teaches me hopscotch and jump-rope rhymes.

April is National Poetry Month and The Juilliard Journal is participating with this page. In keeping with the spoken dimension of poetry, the students featured here, and others on the Journal's Web site, will offer a poetry reading on Monday, May 14, at 7 p.m., location TBD. For further information, e-mail ronprice@juilliard.edu.

—Ron Price, Liberal Arts faculty member

Read Juilliard Students' Poetry