A Poem Across America

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A Poem Across América

As we discover new ways of being in light of the remarkable life-altering changes that have confronted us this past year, how do we put words to what has happened? This poem-in-the -making seeks to do just that and we invite you to help us compose it.

Our project called, A Poem Across America, was conceived by a small group of friends who shared many a Sunday afternoon together weathering the ‘Covid Storm’. Our reading, writing & exploring poetry provided immeasurable comfort for us as we struggled with personal, family, community and global challenges while also attempting to answer questions and define ideas regarding this time in our lives. Immersing ourselves in “the wilderness of poetry” has helped us find words to respond to the darkness and the light of 2020-2021. Some questions for example;

Who did you help & who helped you?
How did your relationship change towards yourself, others & the natural world? What part of ‘normal’ do you not want back?
What is the most profound thing you noticed this year?
Do you think we as a nation & as a species will learn from this?
How has ‘bearing witness to the suffering of others’ transformed you?

Now as spring arrives & life slowly returns to ‘near-normal’, we have begun the process of reclaiming our lives...but unknowns remain with so many unanswered questions. Perhaps you do not want to reclaim the way you were living and have found something new. Poet, Naomi Shihab- Nye’s phrase, “Live your life as a poem”, encourages us to move through our days noting the beauty of the everyday as well as the pain. And poetry, like song, can be written in many different ways about anything at all. The famous Beat poet, Lawrence Ferlinghetti once said of poetry, “Poetry is a street singer who rescues alley cats of love”.

Now the fun part... reaching out to our friends & families & folks we meet along the way, we invite you to send us one or two lines, written in your own words, that speak to your heartfelt experience. We will then carefully weave together as many of the contributions as we can into a poem that we plan to publish online & as a chapbook. Due to the number of submissions that we are anticipating, we kindly ask that you limit your words to one or two lines only. By participating in our project, A Poem Across America, you understand that your lines may be published.

You may email your words directly to poemacrossamerica@gmail.com or send by mail to A Poem Across America POBox 541 Tesuque, NM 87574. Please include your name & state of residence if you wish to be acknowledged in our publication.

So now, to get our poem rolling, we’ll begin by sharing a few lines of our own; Time to whisper to our children, See the deer in the meadow

see how they lift their eyes to our quiet voices and listen.

A year of the best & worst of times / Fear and loss / Reflection reconnection and resetting

...and from somewhere deep down in our wokeness came a gladness
like a mighty plowshare of hands & hearts and the seeds of redemption were made good

“once again cavort in unregulated touch and amusement dance in each other’s breath outside the shadow of death”