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| wild birds enjoying a few coffee beans without harm from nets |
A few years ago I published a poem titled "Boketto" which appeared on the Academy of American Poetry site and led to some lovely emails from old friends as well as a few folks I didn't know. There's nothing better than when a stranger reaches out to tell me a poem that I wrote moved them. In fact, it may be the best reason to publish work that exists: a one to one call and response.
Someone who wrote to me then has just emailed me again asking for advice on some new poems. These aren't just new poems as in just having been written, these are new poems in that actually writing poems is new to this person. How cool is that for a stranger to trust me with brand new work?
This person contacted me because of one line in the poem, "Boketto." It's "we leaned/into the morning: bird friendly coffee and blueberry toast." It turns out, the person who wrote to me is a coffee importer and roaster of bird friendly coffee! This seems such a great example of the magical routes that poetry takes through the world.
Another poetry surprise this month has been my amazing students at Highline College. Their po-jacks of "Again" by Jericho Brown, "The Rape Joke" by Patricia Lockwood, and "The Applicant," by Sylvia Plath were just amazing. These are undergraduates who for the most part, had only written one other poem in their lives. Whatever the reason these three poems opened up deep passageways into their inner lives.
I know there were a few more positive surprises but I will hold to these two for now. Until next week!
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