LOVE OF RHYME IN THE TIME OF TAXES : IN COFFEEHOUSES, OFFICES AND HOMES, LOVERS OF VERSE TRYING TO DEMONSTRATE THAT THE ART IS FOR EVERYDAY USE, EVERYDAY PEOPLE.

Byline: Heesun Wee Daily News Staff Writer

Richard Cloke, a retired math teacher, pens verses and runs the 19-year-old San Fernando Poetry Journal in the quiet privacy of his Northridge home office.

At Sam's Book City in North Hollywood, poets meet on Monday nights to share each other's work.

And, after holding readings for four years in the community room of a Woodland Hills bank, Valley Contemporary Poets is releasing its first anthology this month, ``Beyond the Valley of the Contemporary Poets.''

``Most people in the U.S. think it (poetry) is for people who are smart, educated, above everybody else, it's hard to understand, it's not fun, it's not for the common man. That's a misnomer,'' said Robert Wynne, 28, of Sun Valley, who has been writing poetry for the past decade. His work has appeared in about 30 publications, including the ``Contemporary Poets'' anthology.

Cloke, Wynne and many fellow poets and advocates are part of a movement to show that poets are ordinary folks and that poetry can be for everybody.

``Most of the poetry is obscure as hell, and most people can't make heads or tails of it,'' Cloke said. ``We prefer to be pretty straightforward and hit the nail as much as possible.''

The poems published in Cloke's quarterly journal do just that, exploring timely and compelling topics such as war, anti-Semitism, Newt Gingrich, even crummy jobs. The journal, available by mail for $3, is financed by Cloke. He publishes 500 copies a quarter.

``If I break even, I do fine. Usually I don't,'' said Cloke, 78.

Cloke's goal is to turn people on to poetry, to inspire them to seek it out, to read it, to write it.

``Anything that would stimulate interest in poetry would be a plus,'' he said.

At bookstores and coffeehouses around town and across the country, budding and professional poets are throwing down verses in ``poetry slams.'' Rap musicians and young followers are creating catchy rhymes with rhythm, a poem's backbone. And the prominence of poets - such as Maya Angelou, who read a poem at President Clinton's first inauguration - is helping more poetry slip into the American mainstream.

``Poetry has got a much higher public profile than it has since the Beats and the '50s,'' said G. Murray Thomas, editor and co-founder of Next, a Long Beach-based magazine devoted to poetry from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

Hoping to make poetry more accessible and to boost sales of poetry books, the Academy of American Poets in New York has organized its second annual National Poetry Month this month.

In post offices in some cities today, volunteers will hand out 3,250 free 75th anniversary editions of T.S. Eliot's landmark modern poem ``The Waste Land'' (Harvest/Harcourt Brace) that begins ``April is the cruellest month ... ''

But why would anyone want to thumb through the dense poem, first published in 1922, that even the author once dismissed as ``a personal and wholly insignificant grouse against life''? Isn't filing taxes stressful enough?

Organizers defend their intentions as, well, poetic.

``I think we're hoping by the time they get there (to the post offices), they'll be relieved of most of their stresses,'' said Tom Bevan, National Poetry Month's coordinator.

A tale of two poets

The academy took the cue for its ``Waste Land'' giveaway from the American Poetry & Literacy Project in Washington, D.C. Since 1993, the project has donated thousands of poetry books to schools, libraries, hospitals - even courtrooms, homeless shelters, airports, hotels and trains. Books of verse now lay beside Bibles in hotels and magazines on Amtrak trains.

The project also has inserted pages of verse in the Yellow Pages for some small communities, including Sun Valley.

Walk your fingers to the insurance section, for example, and you'll come across the line, ``I died for beauty ... '' by Emily Dickinson.

``We're living in such a technological age with deadlines, rushing around. Poetry helps us slow down and focus on what's meaningful,'' said Andrew Carroll, co-founder and executive director of the American Poetry & Literacy Project.

Carroll, 27, became the unofficial, 20-something crusader for poetry beginning in 1991. Then an English major at Columbia University, he attended a lecture given by the late Joseph Brodsky, who had just been appointed the fifth U.S. poet laureate. Brodsky advocated making poetry available to a wide audience.

Fired up by the talk, Carroll shot off a letter to Brodsky, supporting the call for publicly accessible poetry. In the fall of 1992, the two met at a small cafe in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. Carroll later began making a lot of telephone calls to publishers, asking them to donate books to the project, which distributes them.

The poetry magnet man

Carroll's project is supporting poetry month in other ways, too. The project, corporate sponsors and creators of the Magnetic Poetry Kit erected Magnetic Poetry Walls in six U.S. cities this month.

Los Angeles is not among those cities, said Michael Deering, a magnetic poetry spokesman, because the company could not find a willing venue. Officials with the University of California, Los Angeles; Old Town Pasadena; the Third Street Promenade; Melrose Avenue; and the L.A. Public Library declined to participate, citing logistical problems, he said.

Based on the small kits, passers-by can arrange larger word tiles on 8-by-20-foot walls to create verses.

``The purpose is to help people get started into writing poetry,'' said David Kapell, 34, who created the first small kit in the fall of 1993.

A would-be poet at the time, Kapell was suffering a serious case of writer's block. Frustrated, he cut out words from magazines and newspapers and shuffled them around on a table, hoping to ignite a creative phrase. But a breeze or occasional sneeze caused by Kapell's allergies threatened his work.

So he pasted the words on magnetic strips, cut them up and attached them to a cookie sheet. The poetry kit was born.

Kits now cling to refrigerators of the young and hip, including Jerry Seinfeld's TV kitchen fridge. Sales of Magnetic Poetry Inc. reached $5.2 million in 1996. And this fall, Workman Publishing in New York is scheduled to publish a book of poetry whose authors used the kits.

``It's amazing. These guys - they were total suits - were walking up and writing very lascivious poems,'' Kapell said of a recent public poetry wall session at the World Financial Center in Manhattan's financial district.

But some poets denounce the kits as mere artifice, not genuine poetry. ``Get a life,'' Kapell responds. ``It's not meant to be anything more than what it is - a toy that helps spark a poetic idea.''

Poetry vs. fiction

Despite the rise in interest in poetry, verse-book sales lag far behind fiction.

No national figures are available to show how many poetry books are sold annually in the United States, but a poetry book's first printing by a relatively unknown author ranges from 1,000 to 5,000 copies, said Lisa Bullard, marketing director for Graywolf Press in St. Paul, Minn.

By contrast, an initial printing of fiction ranges ``anywhere from 12,000 up to the (John) Grisham 2.7 million,'' said Richard Hunt, director of marketing and merchandising for Bantam Doubleday Dell in New York.

The reason poetry isn't flying off bookstore shelves is that the genre still has an image problem, say poets and publishers. Some continue to gauge poetry against its old mold - it's confusing, too academic, for the coffeehouse crowd; in essence, unapproachable. Those who buy and read poetry are still only a minor percentage of the population, Next's Thomas said.

For a touch of the poet 

Feel like a little verse? Celebrate National Poetry Month. The following events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

``Six Newer Poets, II'' - 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Mark Taper Auditorium, Central Library, Los Angeles Public Library, Fifth and Flower streets, downtown Los Angeles, [phone]. Scheduled poets are Brendan Constantine, Wendy James, Jeffrey McDaniel, Ellyn Maybe, Matthew Niblock and Alicia Vogl Saenz.

Valley Contemporary Poets - Poetry reading beginning 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Glendale Federal Savings Building, 7119 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Canoga Park. The evening will feature three Los Angeles-based poets. For more information, call the poetry group at [phone]. A $3 donation is suggested.

The group also is releasing its first anthology this month, ``Beyond the Valley of the Contemporary Poets.''

Poetry workshop - Bring a poem or two and share them with fellow poets at ``Doug Knott's Monday Night Poetry Workshop,'' beginning 7:15 p.m. Monday, Sam's Book City, 5245 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, [phone].

Next - For a more complete listing of poetry events in Southern California, contact Next magazine at [phone]. Issues are $1.50 each.

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos, Box

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) Poetry for the People

Advocates like Richard Cloke are bringing verse to the masses

John McCoy/Daily News

(2) Joy Primavera tries her talent on the magnetic poetry wall at the World Financial Center in New York. The public was invited to create verse on the wall with the winning work getting published in a book.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News

(3) Robert Wynne reads some of his work to other verse lovers at Sam's Book City in North Hollywood, where poets meet on Monday nights.

Associated Press

(4) Copies of T.S. Eliot's ``The Waste Land'' will be handed out to patrons today in some post offices in dual recognition of April as poetry and tax month.

Box: For a touch of the poet (See Text)