Look: It's Fresh. It's a Poem. It's an Epiphany!

 

Charles Waters & Irene LathamIt's a brand new year, and I've got poetry on my mind.

While I've written (and co-written) quite a few poetry collections, this year marks my debut as a co-anthologist (with Charles Waters) with the release of The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets coming from Lerner in the Fall with illustrations by Mercè López. (The cover isn't quite final, but soon!)

As we worked with poets (including Margarita Engle, Naomi Shihab Nye, Linda Sue Park, Jane Yolen, and others!) on poems for this project, I found myself really responding to poems that offered some sort of epiphany. And that reminds me of this marvelous quote from (marvelous) poet Joyce Sidman. 

 "I love the brevity and power of poetry, and the way, through metaphor, it connects everything to everything else. I love the way it can celebrate the humble things, the odd or overlooked things, and make them fresh and amazing. I love the way it captures these moments of epiphany: when we suddenly realize something deep and powerful." 

- Joyce Sidman
May your 2024 be filled with epiphanies...and poetry!