This—Ah!—Bright Life
Or, how do you know so many poets?
During our conversation on the Habit podcast a few months ago, my friend Jonathan Rogers commented on the number of poets included in I’ve Got a Bad Case of Poetry. “How do you know so many poets?” he asked. “Most people don’t know sixty poets.”
I laughed then, and I’m still laughing today at the absurdity of it all. What a life this is! What an embarrassment of riches! To know so many so many poets, so many writers, so many players-with-words. My Instagram and Substack feeds are full of friends putting wonderful things into the world.
To say that my life has been enriched over the past decade is an understatement. So many of the writers and poets I have known and admired have introduced me to even more poets and writers that they know and admire. I buy poetry far faster than I can read it (see my previous post about buying more books than you can possibly read), and I deeply appreciate the vast array of voices that have spoken into my life as a result.
I wish everyone could know sixty poets.
(Oh, wait! They can! In I’ve Got a Bad Case of Poetry. Ha! Shameless plug—I love these people.)
In all seriousness, I do love getting to introduce people to poets I know and love. Like in our workshop on Poetry and Play at the Great Homeschool Conventions, or while chatting with friends at the Square Halo conference, or while working our Bandersnatch booth and watching people linger over our anthology spread out on the table.
I love it because I know what an abundance, what a wealth of experience, comes from seeing through so many eyes, listening for the beauty poets hear, and feeling the depths that they feel.
Watching my children pull a tattered tome of poetry off the shelf...
Hearing stories about grandparents reading verse to their grandchildren…
The palpable joy of poets gathered in a room to generously give and receive words…
I couldn’t have imagined such a wonder-filled life. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.
It’s absurdly delightful to know so many poets. In honor of national poetry month, can I introduce some of my favorites to you?
I will leave you with a recent poem of my own, simply because I promised a poet-friend that I would. (This is what happens when you’re friends with poets.) I hope these images stay with you this week.
Life, at 43 Like that one wild moment in gym class when the colorful parachute is suspended ballooning and it’s my turn to run underneath surrounded by a cloud of friends or when the white sheet balloons suspended a bright canopy over little me before the tucking so is this day these years this ah! bright life.
April 1–30, 2026 - The Greater Charlotte Book Crawl - Support your local indie bookstores!
April 9–11, 2026 - Bandersnatch at the Ohio Great Homeschool Convention - Come to our workshop on Poetry and Play! 2:30 Friday in room 211AB
April 24-25, 2026 - Bandersnatch at HopeWords Writers’ Conference in Bluefield, WV
May 16, 2026 - Bandersnatch at the World of Books immersive book fair in Rock Hill, SC
Have you heard? Congratulations to @glennmccarty and his beautiful middle grade novel THE SONG OF THE STONE TIGER, for being a finalist in the audiobook category of the Selah Awards!
(Please follow Bandersnatch Books on Instagram or Facebook for more news like this!)
“When I get a little bit of money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothing.”
–Desiderius Erasmus
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We are reading A Bad Case of Poetry right now and I am loving that I know so many of the poets from The Habit! Some I know better than others, but it is so thrilling to see their words on the page.
This whole post is full of joy! And I'm so grateful to have even one peek under the parachute with you.