Hello, Poetry Friend
Why I Didn't Keep a Poetry Notebook Last Year Even Though I Did for Twenty-One Years and Wrote About It In My Book and Said Everyone Should Definitely Keep One
Because my shelves are too crowded for another notebook
Because I'm too busy to read those notebooks
Because it's too painful to read those notebooks
Because I could dedicate an entire notebook to Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer's poems
Because the poems that affect me most deeply are the ones I memorize
Becaues the poems I learn by heart do not begin as favorites but they become so
Because I review those memorized poems every day
Because I'm writing more poems of my own
Because I'm sharing more poems of my own
Because I have other notebooks brimfull with gold, and I have a pink plastic shovel and today I dig
Because I'm keeping one shelf empty, for what's next
–Megan Willome
Poetry Journal
Do you have a poetry notebook? What’s in it — your poems? other people’s poems? the occasional grocery list?
How do you interact with poems — visually? orally? aurally? Try a different way today.
What keeps you from your poetry practice? Is it a good something?
Write a poem about your relationship with poetry. If you like, email me what you write.
Happy poeming!
Megan
My poetry notebooks are full of nature sketches, tea stains, pressed flowers, story ideas, shopping lists, and, occasionally, poems.
Oh man, I love that last few lines...
"Keeping the shelves empty for what comes next."