Promoting the expressing of art through shared words, the City of Swift Current recently declared this week to celebrate them, during this, National Poetry Month.

Encouraging residents of the city to follow the lyrical path of roads, Swift Current city council motivated residents to beat their writer's drums.

Tina-Marie Letwiniuk, Tekeyla Friday, and Dianne Miller, members of the Prairie Quills Writers Group were at the council meeting to declare the dates of April 21 to April 27 Poetry Week.

Seeing as poetry can be an unconventional outlet of written expression, the Quills' goal is to make poetry more inviting to those who do not yet share their love for the writing style.

Friday said that during this year's Poetry Week, they were honouring a member of the Prairie Quills who passed away, Anthea Loran.

"She was one of the first Prairie Quils members, Anthea was an advocate for poetry month, and a participant in the Mayor's Poetry Challenge."

The referenced poetry challenge was continued this year as poems created by the trio of Prairie Quills members were presented to council.

Poems read included themes of retirement, happiness, and the passing of Loran.

City Councillor Ron Toles spoke about his granddaughter joining the group, speaking on the universal charm and appeal of writing.

"I had no idea that a 13-year-old girl would be drawn to a group like Prairie Quills, but she goes regularly, she loves it, and her goal is to be a writer."

He said that poetry is an art that needs to be expressed more.

Councillor Chris Martens said that the average Canadian listens to more poetry than they might think.

"I myself find any given moment in any time of the day to listen to music. Music is my whole life, but you take away all of the instruments and everything else, its just poetry. Its all it is. So I can appreciate and respect the writing aspect of it and the poetry aspect of it, so I really do appreciate it."

The Prairie Quills Writers Group members present at the meeting encouraged Swift Current residents to take a deeper look into poetry, whether it be cracking open a tome of Dr. Sues or one of Shakespeare's sonnets.