Aaniin, pricey ones! Good day!
Typically, the smallest steps—like asking for suggestions—result in probably the most sudden and exquisite connections.
On the finish of every contest, we provide the choice to request suggestions in your entries. Mark Fryburg was a type of writers who requested suggestions in a verbal teaching session.
Throughout our suggestions session, Mark and I rapidly found we shared greater than a love of poetry—we additionally grew up in the identical neighborhood and even attended the identical highschool 30 years aside!
This was such a enjoyable expertise of group.
In the event you’ve ever felt alone in your writing journey, keep in mind that you’re a part of one thing bigger. Who sits in your seat in school after you graduate? Who lives in your own home after you progress? What in case your paths crossed once more in an sudden method many years from now?
Mark’s easy act of asking for suggestions led to an sudden and significant connection—one we’re excited to rejoice right this moment.
He additionally acquired 1st place within the “Sense of Place” class for the Poetry Society of Virginia contest. And he’s kindly sharing this piece with us right this moment.
Millennia in the past the sand blew in to dam the estuaries because the ice age warmed and the water rose to develop into a valuable lake playground of our youth the place we lay exhausted on the dunes at evening whereas a form breeze cleared the ocean mist. We gazed at a billion stars, us, splendidly humbled by God’s cathedral ceiling, nonetheless naively believing, barely noticing the dune moved beneath us, reclaiming its creation, a gradual avalanche pressed by new darkish winds in elliptical waves—taking our lake as prize, smothering with grit our final residue, innocence. Males who held our hope for America murdered, our schoolmates marching off to lose their humanity in Asian jungles. Every of us carried a pockets card stamped: “You’re Subsequent.”
Thanks for sharing this unimaginable piece and exquisite reminder of reference to us, Mark! And because of every of you, pricey readers, for being in our group.
Holding again on asking for suggestions? Typically a easy request can open the door to stunning connections and inventive breakthroughs.
