The Friends Behind 'Love & other Mysteries,' part 3

Anna Mitchael

Hello, Poetry Friend

My friend

Anna Mitchael

has a new book, released yesterday, called They Will Tell You the World Is Yours. I preordered mine, so more on the details when I’m done reading. But I know Anna’s reflections always make me ponder.

But first, I want to share her role in my recent book, Love & other Mysteries.

It was almost Easter, and my collection was almost done, meaning almost ready to send out. I needed feedback from a trusted writer who had not seen the poems before. So I reached out to Anna.

We have been friends for fourteen years. I’ve edited her, and she’s edited me. We both know what the other is trying to say when we can’t seem to say it ourselves. She was headed to the beach, but she took the manuscript with her. This is a friend, y’all: someone who reads your work-in-progress while on vacation.

In addition to letting me know what worked and what didn’t, she added two pages of feedback so golden that I printed them and saved them in a yellow folder.

Here’s one of the nuggets:

if you texted me tomorrow and you were like ‘i think i’m going to give everything up and just write poetry about scripture for the rest of my life’ there’s no part of me that would think that was a wrong decision.

I could hardly breathe when I read her words. They came with the same cold shock as when my music director told me I am not an alto; I am a first soprano. Both friends spoke truth I wasn’t prepared for, truth that truly changed my life.

One of the poems I’ve memorized is “Singing Bowl,” by Malcolm Guite. Not long after I memorized it, I figured out it’s a pretty great singing warmup. So here ‘tis, unpolished, with no apologies for where it isn’t as beautiful as I wish (and I do wish).

Because sometimes we find our way by staging "little rebellions" against ourselves — who we thought we were, what we thought we were supposed to sound like. And opening wide for the soar.

Happy poeming!

Megan