announcing this year's poetry theme!

words are hope

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Friends,

If you’re new here, you might not know that every year we have something at The Liminality Journal called a poem a day in the month of may. It’s almost May, everyone, and I am so ready to lean into a practice of poetry writing with you!

It’s one of my favorite things. Each day throughout the month of May, I’ll send a one-word poetry prompt straight to your inbox and invite you to write a poem focused on the word prompt.

I encourage you to find a spot each day to write, whether it’s in the morning or evening, to light a candle, to make it a ritual, a way to practice presence and care. Poetry is care, it is embodiment, it is resistance.

You can share you poem in the comments section each day, joining an incredibly supportive group of folks who love to share their poetry and encourage one another.

Or, you can keep your poems to yourself. There is no pressure to even write if you don’t want to. Just show up and see what happens.

We’ve had folks create works of art like paintings from the word prompts, too. It’s beautiful and it’s community, and reminds me why we are here.

And please know, you can jump into this anytime you want. You don’t have to do it every single day, but I invite you to use it as a way to practice presence and embodiment and mindfulness if you decide to join us.

Now, the theme for this year:

Words are hope.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been crying or on the verge of crying a lot lately. The world is heavy and exhausting and brutal. There is so much hate. And we are stewing in the endless media attention brought about by social media and the news without much relief. The world is hurting, and in the United States we are on the verge of another election, which is bringing about more and more hate and extremism.

When the world is heavy and we are in pain, we turn to words. We always do.

So, this May is about words of hope, words that bring us home and pull us out of ourselves to reach out toward one another. It will be about what hope isn’t, about why we even need hope in the first place.

We need each other, desperately.

And we need words to connect us.

So please join me. Invite friends to join us. Share your poetry online, in sacred spaces—make poetry your sacred space this May.

I can’t wait to see what is birthed in you as we write together. See you May 1st!

Toward hope,

Kaitlin