In May it will be fifteen years.
Fifteen years of searching for poem gifts to send you. Fifteen years on May 5th, to be exact.
My tastes have changed over time, but one thing that has remained the same: I’m always looking to give you the ultimate sip of something that will make your day…
With insight.
Or tenderness.
Courage.
Or hope.
Always an “aha” moment.
And, maybe a chance for you to copy the words down, even put them in your pocket to carry around.
Over time, I’ve had help from acquisitions/permissions editors who would find poems for me to peruse and then approve (or not): Tania Runyan, Monica Silva, Rick Maxson. They all remain friends. These days, I search alone, prep alone, gain permissions. You might think this makes my job lonely. I suppose it could if I didn’t have you… and the publishers… and the poets who share their work upon request.
Things I love best…
• when a poem brings you something you can keep
• when a poem feels worth sharing
• when a poem opens you to beginnings (or helps you make it through endings)
Long ago, I came up with the phrase “poetry for life,” and that is what I still want. Poems that arise from life, generate life, transcend life (and then come back to settle into it with deep inspiration for living in the day-to-day).
Today I am drinking an unknown tea from China. A gift from my sister, from one box in a collection of nine, the whole of which is labeled in Chinese. I don’t know what I am sipping. Only that it has undertones of caramel and florals, maybe a touch of distant, long-dispersed fire.
A good poem is often like this. We can put our hands around the shape of it, but we can’t always parse it in a way that says “definitely this, fully known, exactly what you’re going to get.”
I still love sending you good poems. Making your day. Even your life. With words that can’t always be explained, but that stir your soul and invite you to carry on.
Lift a cup with me, to keep sipping good poetry? Then have a cupcake. Right after we light fifteen candles and sing.
—As always,
L.L. Barkat
Founder of Every Day Poems
Or, celebrate by becoming a patron…
Featured photo by Maryam Sicard, Unsplash license.
Aw, this makes my heart happy - 15 years! Raising my favorite mug of coffee to you, @LL, as well as all the past Poetry Editors, @Tania Runyan, @Monica Silva, and @Rick Maxson! Thank you for your behind-the-scenes work to bring these beautiful, thoughtful poems to us! And their carefully pared images, LL ⋆˙⟡
15 years and 15 thousand reasons to celebrate! Must buy cupcakes...