Eight years ago, my poetry pals and I stumbled into something bigger than we knew we were stumbling into. We decided to write a poem together — a big poem — a Crown Sonnet — from afar. At that point, only a few of us had ever met in person and the idea of an online collaboration still felt… surprising.

What was more surprising, maybe, was how much we loved it. Enough to try at least one big project every year since then — often formal poetry, often with assigned themes, always together from afar. We’ve all met now, at least once. We’ve grown to love each other’s poetry and truly love each other.

So this year we went bigger than big. As a sort of birthday present to Tricia (but really to all of us) we decided to do a poem every single month. And we have. Triolets and pantoums, etherees and odes. It’s been damn hard, sometimes pressure-filled, sometimes an inconvenience, and soooo delightful.

Our final poem needs a few finishing touches so it’s actually getting it’s big reveal in January (when we’ll also launch our 2016 effort — we can’t give up now!), so for today I’ll share this, from Lucille Clifton, with gratitude for my sisters.

sisters

me and you be sisters.
we be the same.
me and you
coming from the same place.

(Read the whole thing — and listen to Lucille Clifton read it! — here.)

Here are the other’s posts for today:
Tricia
Laura
Tanita
Andi
Kelly
Sara

And the link for all the Poetry Friday posts. May they bring a little necessary light into all of our lives.