Another Poetry Month at School—a poem for April

Herman Sutter

June 7, 2026

Inspired by a note from a student: 

“I came early to school

this morning and saw

Mr. Sutter dancing

in the library.”

It is April once again

and there he is—our aged librarian

skipping through the halls.

Aghast, we students stop to watch

such ancient foolishness;

What happens if he falls?

Yet year after year, again he goes

as if the season seized his toes

—the happy victim of it all—

as if he could nothing less (nor more)

than dance across these well-waxed floors

delighted steps echoing off our lockered walls.

Spring —a song he can’t help but sing,

a gift awaiting no opening,

only an old fool’s childlike dancing 

where (and whenever) April calls.

Herman Sutter (award-winning poet/playwright/essayist) is the author of two chapbooks: Stations (Wiseblood Books) and The World Before Grace (Wings Press), as well as “The Sorrowful Mystery of Racism,” St. Anthony Messenger. His work appears in: The Perch, The Ekphrastic Review, The Langdon Review, Touchstone, The Merton Journal, as well as: Texas Poetry Calendar (2021) & By the Light of a Neon Moon (Madville Press, 2019). His recent manuscript, A Theology of Need, was long-listed for the Sexton Prize.