Every Day Is a Poem by Jacqueline Suskin (manga ereader txt) 📗

ones I’ve read more than once, the ones that changed everything, the ones I feel are required reading. I think everyone who is trying to live a better life, discover more, feel more, and charge up their creative spirit should read these books.

Required Reading

Please Start with These

Becoming Wise, Krista Tippett

Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke

The Will to Change, as well as All About Love, and anything else written by bell hooks

A Field Guide to Getting Lost, as well as The Mother of All Questions, and anything else written by Rebecca Solnit

Good, Wild, Sacred, Gary Snyder

Anything written by James Baldwin

Bluets, as well as The Argonauts, and anything else written by Maggie Nelson

Novels I Adore

East of Eden, as well as Journal of a Novel, and anything else written by John Steinbeck

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers

Demian, Hermann Hesse

When Women Were Birds, Terry Tempest Williams

White Noise, Don DeLillo

The Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner

Exit West, Mohsin Hamid

Gilead, as well as Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard

Anything written by Joan Didion

The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls

Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf

Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi

Always Coming Home, Ursula K. Le Guin

A Few Others That Are Essential

Your Art Will Save Your Life, Beth Pickens

You Can Heal Your Life, Louise Hay

How Can I Help?, Ram Dass and Paul Gorman

The Body Never Lies, as well as The Drama of the Gifted Child, Alice Miller

Anything written by Maira Kalman

What It Is, and anything else written by Lynda Barry

What to Do When I’m Gone, Suzy Hopkins and Hallie Bateman

How to Not Always Be Working, Marlee Grace

Tiny Beautiful Things, Cheryl Strayed

Runaway, Alice Munro

The Collected Stories, Dylan Thomas

Just Kids, Patti Smith

Autobiography of Red, Anne Carson

According to Google there are nearly 130 million books published. The number of books I’ll actually read in my lifetime pales in comparison. I aim to read as many as possible, to ingest the stories that come my way, the words that I’m drawn to, the authors and poets, who like magnets, pull me in. I used to go to the library and almost panic while feeling the pressure to read book after book with no end in sight. Now I celebrate the fact that there will always be something to decipher, something to learn, countless words to indulge in, one discovery and one book at a time.

AFTERWORD

People always ask me how I tap into my creativity, how I keep it coming, how I can write so quickly and with such depth on a regular basis. There’s a magic to it. There’s an unknown recipe moving through me, sparking my spirit ever since I was a little girl. Yet on my journey as a creative writer, as an expressive and inspired person, I’ve found this to be true: it takes work to be in awe, to stay uplifted, to remain engaged with the world in a poetic way. I’m always practicing, leaving time for visions, choosing to go on a walk and ponder, deciding to rise out of bed at 3:00 a.m. to write down the poem I’m dreaming up. Inspiration requires dedication. The muse demands a certain type of attention. It’s glorious work, but it is indeed work. That’s my best advice. Just celebrate your effort, accept that it’s endless, and enjoy the process of mining the wonder out of life on earth. We have all the tools we need. Everything is a gift. Show up for it with deep devotion and it’ll continue to overflow for you in limitless detail.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you, Marlee Grace. Without you, my dear friend, this book would still just be an idea in waiting. I love you, and I look forward to the many creations we’ll make in unison.

Thank you to Kate Woodrow and Present Perfect for believing in me without a doubt and getting this book published. Thank you to Sounds True and my wonderful editor, Diana Ventimiglia, for helping me craft this project and get it into the hands of readers everywhere.

To all of my friends and loved ones who have supported and inspired my path as a poet: I appreciate you and couldn’t do this work without your presence in my life.

Matt Phipps, I’m grateful as always for your editorial eye. Please write more poetry. You’re really good at it.

Shelby Duncan, my Cosmic Queen, my gratitude for you is infinite as always. Thank you for your impeccable design eye and your endless, magical presence in my life.

Thank you to Sacha Marini for introducing me to so much goodness, including Sarah Brown’s Bottle Cap Oracle Project and Psychic Dictionary.

The section about “finding the poet in your life” was inspired by a conversation with my dear friends Kristy Edmonds and Nora Halpern, two women who support art and poetry in constant, magical, and much needed ways.

Kathy Fletcher, I’m so grateful for our friendship and for the chance to be part of Turnaround Arts. Through this program I’ve been able to see firsthand the transformation that happens when I bring my poetic ideas into the classroom.

To the Florida State University English Department, thank you for the various lessons that still enrich my writing.

Above all, thank you to the poets, living and dead, published or not, for delving into the depths and translating the darkness for us all.

POEM SOURCES

“In Awe” first appeared in The Edge of the Continent Volume Two: The City (Rare Bird Books, 2019)

“Drinking Water” first appeared in The Edge of the Continent Volume One: The Forest (Rare Bird Books, 2018)

“Housemates” first appeared in The Edge of the Continent Volume Two: The City (Rare Bird Books, 2019)

“Heart Rock” first appeared in Help in the Dark Season: Poems (Write Bloody Publishing, 2019)

“I’m Here” first appeared in The Edge of the Continent Volume Two: The City (Rare Bird Books, 2019)

“The Great Command” first appeared in The Edge of the Continent Volume Three: The Desert (Rare Bird Books, 2020)

“I Can Stay” first appeared in The Edge of the Continent Volume Two: The City (Rare Bird Books, 2019)

“Alongside Highway 299” first appeared in The Edge of