Wallace Stevens was born in 1879 (in Reading, PA) and died in 1955. Stevens wrote poetry in the evenings, but made his living as businessman and lawyer. Perhaps Stevens might be best known for getting into a fight with Ernest Hemingway. Stevens broke his hand while punching Hemingway in the jaw, and Hemingway beat him up pretty badly. The sad fact is that Stevens started the whole thing. At a Key West party, Stevens took it upon himself to defame the character of the novelist

We posted our first keyboard lesson! Joe is not a keyboard player, but he is applying his knowledge of music theory (that he learned on the guitar and bass guitar) to learning the keyboard. We hope that this exercise is useful to you! If you would like the music notation, email us at poconolibrary.info@gmail.com. Let's learn together. This is a great lesson for those of you who like the classical sound! Click on link to go to video: https://youtu.be/HY9fOcE9a98 Funding has be

Earlier this month, we posted a video of Joe playing and teaching the melody to "Killing Me Softly," inspired by The Fugees. We hope you like it! Share this video with any beginning guitarist in your life! We certainly appreciate it. Click to see Joe play "Killing Me Softly" https://youtu.be/W1he8y2_Lcs Funding has been provided by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the Corona Virus Aid, Relief, and Economic Secu

We just published a short guitar lesson on YouTube. In this lesson, Joe shows you how to play the melody to “White Christmas.” If you know anyone learning the guitar, send them this video. There’s free guitar tab at the end of the video, and we can e-mail it to you as well. Just e-mail us at poconolibrary.info@gmail.com. Happy Holidays! Click on the link to see Joe perform and teach "White Christmas." https://youtu.be/rYUeabKO-Ic Funding has been provided by the Pennsylvania

Santa made a special trip to PMPL to read the kids a fun story, Pooch on the Loose: A Christmas Adventure by Steven Kroll. What happens when Bart the dog escapes his New York apartment? He gets to see all the sights, visiting the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and so much more! Click on the link to watch the story! https://youtu.be/UZskxri9unc Funding has been provided by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as

Make a holiday themed card for your friends and family. For those of you who missed our live Zoom craft on Friday for a holiday card collage project, please watch this video on the library's YouTube channel. If you are interested in making this fun card project, call the library at 570-894-8860 x 3, and arrange for a Go Bag for the holiday card craft. The Go Bag includes all you need to make 5 collage cards yourself. You can also add anything you like that you may have at

The first thing that I ever checked out from a public library was a cassette tape of T.S. Eliot reading his own poetry, and it included today’s featured poem, “Macavity: The Mystery Cat.” And finding this poem was a complete accident! When I was about 15 years old, I would do some baby-sitting for the neighbors to accrue a bit of spending money during the summers. And when I got about $25 saved, I’d take a hike to the Mall 205 to treat myself to a Metallica tape from Musiclan

Thomas Hood was an English poet and humorist born in 1799 and died in 1845. He was born just above his father’s book shop. Although he loved London, his hometown, he always found the winter months dreary. London’s frequent fog and smog were infamous around the world. This is a poem about the dreariness of winter. I think many people in the Poconos will be able to relate to this work. “No!” by Thomas Hood No sun—no moon! No morn—no noon— No dawn— No sky—no e

If you’re feeling stressed, meditation can help calm your mind and relieve anxiety. Pocono Mountain Public Library has three meditation workshops coming up on Zoom! The dates are on Tuesdays, November 24th and December 8th & 22nd at 3:30pm. If you’ve never tried meditation, give it a chance. There have been numerous studies linking meditation with positive health benefits. These benefits include, but are not limited to, reducing stress, increasing clarity of thought and conce

We aren't able to have in-person programs because of Covid-19, but we can still craft together. Register with the library by emailing pococolibrary.info@gmail.com and we'll arrange pick up of your craft Go Bag with all the supplies you need to participate, and send you a Zoom invitation for this program on Monday November 23, 2020 at 200 pm. We can also help you learn how to use Zoom if you've never done it. Join us for this fun time! You will learn how to make 3-D paper

Alex Trebek, one of television’s most iconic names, recently passed away at the age of 80. Many honors have been bestowed upon Trebek, and he will be missed. He will forever be synonymous with the popular game show, Jeopardy!. Since 1984, Trebek has hosted over 8,200 episodes of Jeopardy, won a Peabody Award in 2011, inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2018, and won his 7th Daytime Emmy Award in 2020. As the host of Jeopardy, Alex Trebek inspired America to be curi