Making meaning from chaos

This week is filled with words in the form of poems and the magic they conjure when placed artfully and thoughtfully together. I'm incredibly honoured to be editing a book of poems for a friend in L.A. This friend and a dear friend of hers, bored of Zoom calls and craving deeper connection, came up with a project during the pandemic:

To write a poem a day and swap them with each other for an entire year. The result is a collection of poems written and exchanged over 365 days between 2021 and 2022. They are preparing this curated collection of their favourite poems from the project for publishing.

Working through each page and poem, I'm struck by the power of words and the cache of strength they can create when compounded over time. A book of poems is not just a book of poems; it's a time capsule documenting moments of stillness, capturing the essence of a season, establishing existence over a length of time - in this case, the quagmire of life in suspense during a modern influenza. It's life writing expressed as art. It's proof of our humanness to endure.

The stories they tell. The memories they evoke. The mythic path they travel. The emotions felt, witnessed, released. The themes of love, friendship, motherhood, but also, grace, growth, change. These words are a journey of self-discovery; an open-hearted siren call, an intimate immersion in shared thoughts, a force of fierce perseverance in wild and wavering times.

Two women making meaning from chaos, emerging from the ashes a little more enlightened and evolved for their commitment to write their way through it, to meet the pen and page each day as an act of self-love and shared healing.

It's honestly an extraordinary thing.
This is why writing is art.
And words are food for the soul.
Keep them soft and sweet in case you have to eat them, indeed.

Thanks for reading.
Please subscribe if you’d like Wordstrings in your inbox.