we crash, crowd and compete
but within our community,
we find our best selves

Copyright 2018 Brenda Davis Harsham

Notes: I had a great critique group meeting yesterday. I am in awe of their mad skills and generosity. I was part of something larger than me: an ocean of words, a sea of stories. I’m not sure if I was a seal or a seagull, but I’m afloat.

Happy Poetry Friday! Thanks to Carol at BeyondLiteracyLink for hosting. Has anyone seen the community poem created by Morning Edition listeners and Kwame Alexander? Although holiday-themed, it inspired me to offer to organize a community poem. Anyone interested? If so keep reading…

Please leave a line (or two) about what poetry is or what it means to you (either quote or original with attribution). Once I have enough, I’ll post them on a future Poetry Friday, with an invitation to write your own poem from them. I’ll get us started:

Poetry Is…

… ice cream on a summer day. (Brenda Harsham)
… deep thoughts wrapped in golden words. (Deb Whittam)
…  the flutter of words at sunrise. (Jone Rush MacCulloch)
…  a quest. La poésie est une quête. (Prunelles9)
…  a ripple on still water. (Beth)
…  the music of words, our first language. (Laura Shovan)
…  truth waiting to be found. (Michelle Kogan)
…  a way of walking in the world. A ministry of presence. A stormcloud about to burst. (Irene Latham invites us to pick one)
…  the roots; sending fingers of truth deep into the earth, and sprouting hope. (Kathryn Apel)
…  the beauty and honesty of the unspoken. (Matt Forrest Esenwine)
…  the quiet heartbeat of life. (Kay McGriff)
…  the air that lives in our souls…the rhythm of our existence. (Kennie Vevah)
…  the essence of reality and the reality of essence. (Donna Smith)
…  an umbrella on a rainy day. (Jane Whittingham)
…  my breathing space, my heart’s song, my soul’s prayer. (Myra Garces-Bacsal)
…  more questions than answers. (Mary Lee Hahn)
…  the gentle wonderings of a world calling me to unravel its beauty in words. (Carol Varsalona)
…  seeing myself in the mirror of another’s eyes. (Michelle H. Barnes)
…  my imaginings made real. (Linda Mitchell)
…  eliminating the unnecessary. (Diane Mayr)
…  the joyful heartbeat of words to share. (Kiesha Shepard)
…  a bell and its echo all at once. (Robyn Hood Black)
…  a cup of tea with a friend you will never meet, a connection across time, words that outlive our lives. (Ali Grimshaw)
…  a cure to the wounds of life. (anondotverse)
…  a gift. (OneHundred&OnePursuits)
…  what prose can’t be. It’s a photograph rather than the whole film. (Bliss Winters)
…  the gentle click that pulls it all into focus. (Molly Hogan)
…  the words that tremble from my mouth but stand strong at the end of my pen. Poetry is strength! (BigDJean)
…  the essence of my complex simplicity. (Ashley Yeager)
…  a basket we weave with words to store the world. (Brenda Davis Harsham)
…  the very beating of the heart. (theBookishNook)

And quotes:
Charles Simic says: “Poems are other people’s snapshots in which we see our own lives.” (Diane Mayr)