{"id":683,"date":"2025-04-10T11:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T15:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/?p=683"},"modified":"2025-11-19T14:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T19:43:07","slug":"poetry-month-guest-epistle-from-naomi-jeske","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/poetry-month-guest-epistle-from-naomi-jeske\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Month Guest Epistle from Naomi Jeske"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Guest Contributor, Naomi Jeske, 17<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy National Poetry Month!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know we do not all consider ourselves poets. We are, of course, all writers. But each of us has a unique relationship to words whether we write fantasy or memoir or realistic fiction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poetry. We document the past or we predict the future. We are all so different, yet we have all found ourselves here, settling in with this week\u2019s epistle. We have all found love in the world of writing. We all create new characters and worlds and images. We all craft our own histories out of the things we have and the things we long for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t believe that a poet is simply \u201ca person who writes poems.\u201d A poet is someone who sees more than what is there. Who sees a flower and wonders about its inevitable wilting. Who sees a stranger on the street and wonders about the inner workings of their brain. Who sees a blank page and wonders about the endless ways in which it could be filled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that sense, we are all poets. Not because we are writers, but because we are dreamers. Because we imagine life, and death, and love, and loss. Because we build such possibilities out of the angles and curves of letters that someone assigned meaning to. And we assign new meanings. Each and every day, we create new worlds just by existing. The ideas, thoughts, and opinions that both stem from and give way to everything we see and feel are, in their own ways, poems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So next time you get an email celebrating National Poetry Month, get invited to a poetry reading, or are asked to write a poem, don\u2019t pretend you are anything less than a poet. Each and every one of us are poets. Whether you spend every waking minute writing poems or have never written a poem in your life, you are a poet. Every breath you take is the breath of a poet. Every step you take is the step of a poet. Every word you speak is the word of a poet. We are all poets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So put a poem in your pocket for Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 10th. Print out some Emily Dickinson or Ocean Vuong. Write a haiku, sonnet, or free-verse. Or, if that doesn\u2019t appeal to you, put in your pocket a blank piece of paper. Because even just wondering how that piece of paper (and the world it will inevitably be filled) could change the world, makes you a poet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Contributor, Naomi Jeske, 17 Happy National Poetry Month! I know we do not all consider ourselves poets. We are, of course, all writers. But each of us has a unique relationship to words whether we write fantasy or memoir or realistic fiction.  Poetry. We document the past or we predict the future. We are …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter","category-staff-voices","entry entry-center"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9aRpX-b1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":599,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/celebrating-scholastic-award-winning-writopians\/","url_meta":{"origin":683,"position":0},"title":"Celebrating Scholastic Award-Winning Writopians","author":"L\u00e9na Roy","date":"February 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Written by Lena Roy, Director of Teen Programs, and Peter Quinn-Jacobs, Associate Director of Operations LENA: Scholastic season may be over, and sure we\u2019ve all rolled up our sleeves and gotten back to work, but as writers, we also need to celebrate when we can. 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This is what motivates us each year to make the CP Getaway happen!\u00a0(CP is the acronym for Creative Portfolio.)\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screen-Shot-2025-06-13-at-5.10.34-PM.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screen-Shot-2025-06-13-at-5.10.34-PM.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screen-Shot-2025-06-13-at-5.10.34-PM.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screen-Shot-2025-06-13-at-5.10.34-PM.png?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screen-Shot-2025-06-13-at-5.10.34-PM.png?resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":522,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/2024-news-and-announcements\/","url_meta":{"origin":683,"position":3},"title":"2024 News and Announcements","author":"Rebecca Wallace-Segall","date":"June 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to the 2024 Annual Newsletter. First, congratulations to the thousands of Writopia writers, from young and teen writers to instructors and full-time staff, who set out and completed the writing of original pieces this year! A few hundred members of our community also bravely submitted writing to the 2024\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Newsletter"","block_context":{"text":"Newsletter","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/newsletter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mcusercontent.com\/4bbae34d2f35a71d5195e09a7\/images\/422d4720-aca6-d130-5d9d-ae64544de0e3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":558,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/turning-the-page-virtual-cozy-crafts-on-saturday-february-8th-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":683,"position":4},"title":"Turning the Page – Virtual Cozy Crafts on Saturday, February 8th, 2025","author":"L\u00e9na Roy","date":"February 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Written by Lena Roy, Head of Writopia Lab\u2019s Creative Portfolio Program Turning the Page (TtP) hosted a Virtual Cozy Crafts event this past Saturday afternoon while many of us in the Northeast were preparing for a snowstorm! TtP is a literary social justice committee started by members of the Creative\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":563,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/experiencing-competition-and-news-fatigue-lean-into-imagination\/","url_meta":{"origin":683,"position":5},"title":"Experiencing Competition and News Fatigue? Lean into Imagination","author":"L\u00e9na Roy","date":"February 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi Everyone!\u00a0 It\u2019s Zoe Becker coming to you live from DC (certainly an interesting place to be right now) with this week\u2019s Epistle! 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