Poem Presents—A Poem Is a Gift No Distance Can Erase

In this time of distancing, many of us feel the desire to share with others. It can be frustrating to figure out how we can do that freely, and with heart. Especially if we have to stay at home.

It’s been said that a poem is a presence, and we agree. A beautiful poem, a hopeful poem, a poem of comfort is also a gift.

So Tweetspeak Poetry is hosting a special project called “Poem Presents.”

It’s simple to participate. Just find a few poems of beauty, comfort, hope (or even humor)—from a site like Poetry Foundation. You could also subscribe to Every Day Poems, which focuses on delivering poems that inspire, bring insight, and grant a sense of hope.

Share your poem gifts with friends, family, co-workers—and with us by adding an @tspoetry on Twitter or Instagram.

You can share a whole poem, or just a quote. Use the hashtag #poempresents so we can see and celebrate.

Over time, we’ll also occasionally choose some of your presents to share with the larger Tweetspeak community. If the poem is under copyright, we’ll share just a portion of it.

We look forward to the treasures of beauty, comfort, and hope that you’ll find and share. And we wish you many poetic gifts to close the distances.

With hope and warm encouragement,

Laura L. Barkat
Publisher, Tweetspeak Poetry

And, the Tweetspeak Team

A Few Poem Presents You Could Give Right Now

“Get close to the things that slide away in the dark.
Be grateful even for the boredom
That sometimes seems to involve the whole world.
Think of the frost
That will crack our bones eventually.”

— Tom Hennen, from Darkness Sticks To Everything: Collected and New Poems

see all of Love for Other Things
 

“Suddenly, in every tree,
an unseen nest
where a mountain
would be.”

— Tess Gallagher, from Midnight Lantern

see all of Choices
 

“Whiter
than the crust
left by the tide,
we are stung by the hurled sand
and the broken shells.”

— H.D., more Collected Poems 1912-1944

see all of The Wind Sleepers
 

“We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, ‘Here,
have my seat,’ ‘Go ahead—you first,’ ‘I like your hat.’”

— Danusha Laméris, from Bonfire Opera

see all of Small Kindnesses
 

“There is this moment
when your heart sinks
out there on the mesa.
You thought there’d be a river
just around this corner”

— L.L. Barkat, author of Earth to Poetry

see all of Rider
 

Missing a kick
at the icebox door
It closed anyway

—Jack Kerouac, in Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years

"If you think that you can grasp me, think again:
my story flows in more than one direction
a delta springing from the riverbed
with its five fingers spread"
from Delta by Adrienne Rich#poempresents @tspoetry

— HisFireFly (@HisFireFly) April 8, 2020

To all those women of a certain age who, like me, continue to live in denial. From Judith Viorst. @tspoetry #poempresents #poetry pic.twitter.com/sBL7JDiUkR

— SandraHeskaKing (@SandraHeskaKing) April 8, 2020

'…imagine what it could mean//to stand, just for a moment,/on the span of wonder….' @llbarkat 'In the Park at the Golden Hour' #DipIntoPoetry @EDayPoems @tspoetry #NationalPoetryMonth #poempresents

— Maureen Doallas (@Doallas) April 10, 2020

"A voice from the dark called out,
‘The poets must give us
imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar
imagination of disaster. Peace, not only
the absence of war.’"
Denise Levertov#poempresents @tspoetry

— HisFireFly (@HisFireFly) April 11, 2020

Important reminder. @LRKnost @tspoetry #poetrypresents #peaceispossible pic.twitter.com/04k5roMaWu

— Michelle Eades (@MichelleLEades) April 21, 2020