The Year of the Poet ~ July 2016 (The Year of the Poet: Poets Create Bridges of Cultural Understanding Poetry Series)

Preface Greetings Family, Sometimes as a Poet and Writer, we feel pressed to find some inspiration that we may feel useful in our writing. Of course our aspirations is to write something significant that we may pass it on to our potential readers. The ultimate reward is when a reader finds some redeeming value in what we have to say. Sometimes we are reaching as writers and poets, for we feel a sort of obligation to write. Sometimes we must simply be still and silent and wait for our muse to show up, whatever that may be. I have always said, there is a poem waiting for us wherever we look. The trick is how to look! Where do we go or meander to connect with some viable form of insight, beauty or meaningful words that are worthy of our scribing. Perhaps this ”Preface” is more for the writer, than the reader, but as i sat pondering what i was going to write this month i realized that there is a sacred and sometimes unfulfilled understanding of our motivations between Poet and his or her audience. Personally, as i stated above, i seek stillness and silence and patiently wait. I usually do this in my cathedral of nature, where the winds are blowing, the birds are chirping and the grass and flowers offer their fragrance unto my consciousness. Though the poem that comes about may have nothing to do with nature, it is this very nature of things that cleanses my poetic palette and allows me to hear the whisperings of the muses. We poets are a strange breed, for out of nothingness, or the slightest of movement comes some of the most prolific insights to and about life. In this monthly volume of “The Year of the Poet” perhaps you will get a glimpse of the core essence of these wonderful worldclass poets who have chosen to share such intimacies with you the reader. Thank You Bless Up bill Love and Blessings Bill PS Do Not forget about the World Healing, World Peace Poetry effort. Available here www.worldhealingworldpeacepoetry.com For Free Downloads of Previous Issues of The Year of the Poet www.innerchildpress.com/the-year-of-the-poet

Foreword This summer has been a lesson in humility It’s one thing to read the works of our peers But to meet them in an environment unfamiliar to ourselves, ah yes there’s the rub From enduring a less than average spring With seemingly never ending rain Poets from around the world traveled by car, buses and planes They gathered in a hotel lobby on a summer day Smiles and looks of awe from an initial greeting Unable to believe who we’re actually seeing My heart was beating fast This month’s theme is “Summer Things” And as I sat by the cooling water of a pool I saw poetry in the way a woman swam I felt sincerity in the shake from a hand I met a man who sold his blood to make the trip He chilled the blood of those who heard him spit Shirts off in the heat, shoes off of our feet 2 am walks down the street I meet two woman under the glow of a crescent moon I recited a poem and received a summer smile All the while thinking wow, I’m reading to greatness This forward is more than just about this Summer is a coming together time We show our flaws and warm the scars of winter Summer exposes the soul Joe DaVerbal Minddancer