In 2025, I began most days with a poem from this book. My commitment to reading this anthology stemmed from the pattern the kids used to have when we homeschooled them – usually having at least one poetry book as part of their curriculum throughout the year. I returned to the habit for myself because of my continued fascination with words.
As I read last year, when a poem struck a particular cord, I would make a mark in the Table of Contents, and sometimes on the page itself. (SideQuest: do you remember your first experience when you realized you COULD write in a book – in fact sometimes you SHOULD?!)
At the end of 2025, I collected the authors that I enjoyed on a couple journal pages. I revisited the poems I had marked. From there, I have set to inviting four poets to be my companions for each quarter (season) of 2026.
First quarter has been spent with Emily Dickinson. We share a first name and I have always felt that I should feel a kindredness with her. Well, sometimes I do, and sometimes she is just odd. But I do believe that I will recognize her voice more clearly. And this is a book that I would like very much to return to in the future. Some of her poems have hit my very core, others have made me laugh out loud. And some are just – not the words for right now for me.
I’ve just ordered my books for Quarter 2. The exciting thing about finding a poet in an anthology is that if you don’t know them from before, you have no preconceptions or expectations. You meet them through their words first, then you get to know some of the who behind the words. John Agard will be my poet companion for this coming season. I do not remember being introduced to him before. I was thrilled to learn that much of his poetry is found in my favorite kind of book – children’s picture books. So I have this book (don’t you love the title?!) for my daily reading, and also HAD to order a picture book “Come All You Little Persons”. This quarter I will also have the joy of two illustrators – Momoko Abe and Jessica Courtney-Tickle.
Do you have any poets or poems that I should invite to this adventure?