This story is republished by permission from Courtney LeBlanc, one of several local poets who participated in The Poet is IN this year. The Poet is IN took place at various Arlington Public Library locations throughout the month of April - National Poetry Month - and is a partnership between the Library and Arlington Cultural Affairs.
April 11, 2018
Last Saturday, I was one of the resident poets at Arlington Public Library, writing poems for library patrons.
The library started doing this a few years back, and I’ve participated several times. It’s a great way to celebrate National Poetry Month and a great way to bring poetry to the general public.
On Saturday I sat for two hours and wrote poems for anyone who stopped by. In total I wrote ten poems on the following topics: new relationships, cherry blossoms, libraries, spring, transience, traveling, graduating, bread, beauty, and ducks. Ten poems on ten wildly different topics.
The next day I opened my email to find this:
This was from Harald, a library patron who requested I write him a poem about transience.
The poems I write during this event are composed in just a few minutes. I don’t edit them or give them more than a quick read-over. I jot them down, and then rewrite them on the nice paper the library provides. They are usually relatively light-hearted and don’t touch on many of the heavier topics I usually write about. I never really expect much from them, so to get this email really made my day. It reminded me that words matter and that my words mattered to that person. And that’s a wonderful feeling.
You can read Courtney's original blog post, and find out more about her poetry, on her website.
The Poet was IN!
