This is me and a grandchild who also enjoys and writes some poetry … and who contributed art to three of my poetry books.
Poetry is for sharing. It brings people together in community to sing, listen, illustrate, recite together. Poetry that comes from the heart also touches hearts. Poetry reminds us of our common humanity. Scripture Psalms are poetry. Song lyrics and hymns are poetry. Nursery rhymes gave us some of our first experiences of rhyme and meter. As our society becomes more mechanized and tech-centered, a hunger and appreciation for poetry is growing. Really, I can’t imagine the human experience without poetry.
I started writing poems in fifth grade. Proud of my first real poem (It was about Jesus as my friend) I showed it to my Sunday School teacher. She said, “You should send this to the Junior Joys!” My parents, though, cautioned me, “Don’t get your hopes up. They receive lots of submissions.”
Well, I took courage and sent my poem to the publication’s masthead address. Then waited. About six months later, it appeared in print! To think that Sunday School kids and their parents across the country were reading verses of my words and feelings. Those verses expressed something others could relate to—and maybe be encouraged by. Perhaps my little poem helped them put words to their own experience, or the experience they wanted to have.
As I grew up, composing poems in my journals to express childhood wonder—or teenage angst—was mostly private outlet. But the verses stepped out of my personal reveries and the locked pages of my diary when I contributed a piece to my high school poetry journal. Then a teacher asked me to read another of my poems to the class. And later, my college creative writing teacher read a poem of mine to her class.
In those situations I realized how the rhythm and rhyme, the sound and sense of a poem can connect writer, reader, and hearers in a shared experience, shape a shared vision.
As a young adult, when a friend moved away, I was asked to write a poem and read it at her going-away party. Later, for my sister’s birthday party, I composed and read a poem.
When I had a family of my own, our Thanksgiving tradition became one where each family member brought something creative to the dinner table to share: a Thanksgiving or Fall themed poem, a scripture or psalm, a picture colored for the occasion.
Through the years I got busy with church work, music ministry, freelance writing, and family. But poetry was a gift that stayed in the background and came to the fore to help me express my emotions during times of loss and grief, as well as times of wonder and joy. I sometimes shared them with friends. Then I began submitting poems to publications. Here’s an example of one that was published:
There came a time when it dawned on me I had a pile of poems produced in all stages of my life (up to then). I had published a novel and more than one nonfiction book of my own—and numerous book for other authors. Why not publish a collection of my poetry? I arranged the poems in reverse chronological order, from the most recent all the way back to that 5th grade poem from Junior Joys. So many memories!—some easier than others to recall. I titled it Remembering Softly: A Life In Poems. It included colorful art by two creative young granddaughters.
The book garnered positive reviews. And it fostered togetherness. For instance:
- One niece told me she was reading the poems to her boyfriend.
- My father, who was about 90 at the time and experiencing dementia, kept the book on his chair-side table to pick up and read now and then. He was convinced that the picture on the cover was me! I couldn’t change his mind on that, but I decided that was okay if it helped him feel closer to me (since I lived hundreds of miles away).
When you’re a poet and/or a lover of poetry, you talk with friends about poetry. Here’s a pic from a video of me chatting with a friend about her poetry:
When I’ve had opportunity, I have taught others about poetry, to help them appreciate its depths and treasures, and to help those who want to communicate through poetry to learn poetic techniques. This happened mostly at writers conferences.
Poetry readings also bring people together around the sharing of poetry. At this local literary event, I read from Remembering Softly to an audience of all ages. It was a new experience for me to not personally know a single person in the audience:
You just never know where and to whom your poetry will go. Here is a friend and loyal fan, Jim. He lives in Texas where his local B&N store held open mike nights. He took my second published book of poetry, Glimpsing Glory, and read from it to the assembled bookstore cafe crowd!
Glimpsing Glory came out at the same time as the Covid pandemic. One reader, a businessman, frustrated with lockdown and online meetings, shared this poem with a Zoom group:
Screen time in spring is deadening,
though perhaps necessary.
But more needed is the feel
of mountain breezes in your lungs,
a rocky trail under your feet,
the velvet of unfurling leaves
sweet scents of new-mown grass
and just-turned earth,
the taste of first strawberries.
Book signing events happen, too, now and then. My husband, Larry, and I participated in this event in Denver where I signed and sold books, including the illustrated Christmas story-in-verse, Something Is Coming To Our World.
You might even find your dog enjoys your poetry. (We know cowboys sing to their cows.) Here my dog, Jasper, seems to be engrossed in the anthology, The Animals In Our Lives, to which I contributed a poem about taking Jasper for neighborhood walks: “Canine Social Media.”
This humorous poem is the one that won me an award from The Dog Writers Association of America:
Meanwhile, poems keep coming to my heart and mind. And as I share them, they bring people together. I invite you to join the reading community of my latest poetry collection:
I wish you happy and meaningful poetry reading and sharing!
Joy and peace,
If you appreciate my posts and poetry, I hope you’ll read my books! If you want to send some quick encouragement for me to keep on keeping on, then here’s something else you can do:
Much appreciated!
In this poetic essay I engage with the idea that we need to get involved—with others—in what God is doing in our world. Will we listen to what the past and present are saying, so we can move together WITH our loving God now … stepping into the possibilities that call us to a renewed future?
