August 2021
EDITOR'S NOTE
Dear Villagers,
A not uncommon nighttime utterance at my house is "Well, we survived another day." And for that, we are infinitely grateful, recognizing that far too many people in the world did not survive the day—physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, or mentally. That somehow, "not enough" became "too much" and the only escape left them broken, some of them irreparably. I won't catalog the things that my family has survived over the last 47 years, but I will say that without someone to laugh with and cry with, we would not be standing.
What's that got to do with poetry, or Verse-Virtual? Pretty much everything. This community has fostered friendships and conversations that take place privately, where you are able to laugh and cry and empathize with each other, encourage, lift, and mentor. The kindness that keeps a family together is the same kindness that connects members of this group. It shows up in your poetry, in your emails to me, in your comments and reviews of each month's poems.
Thank you, all of you, for making Verse-Virtual a place where we each can thrive, not just survive.
This month, we are introducing a feature called "Appreciations". It shares the concept of the comments/reviews that are sent in each month, but has a different focus, which is on books or chapbooks authored by members of this community. Detailed information can be found HERE. Start thinking about a book you own, written by another V-V member that really rocked. Since this is a new feature for V-V, there will be inevitable questions, some of which we anticipate, others may surprise us. Email your questions to appreciations4vv@gmail.com. I believe this will open some new avenues for interacting with each other, and will add to our sense of community. Prove me right.
Submissions for September are open from August 1 to August 10 at midnight. Please take your time zone into account—I won't take anything before 00:01 AM Pacific Time on the 1st day, or 11:59 PM Pacific Time on the last day. The OPTIONAL theme for September is "Changes", however you interpret that.
A not uncommon nighttime utterance at my house is "Well, we survived another day." And for that, we are infinitely grateful, recognizing that far too many people in the world did not survive the day—physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, or mentally. That somehow, "not enough" became "too much" and the only escape left them broken, some of them irreparably. I won't catalog the things that my family has survived over the last 47 years, but I will say that without someone to laugh with and cry with, we would not be standing.
What's that got to do with poetry, or Verse-Virtual? Pretty much everything. This community has fostered friendships and conversations that take place privately, where you are able to laugh and cry and empathize with each other, encourage, lift, and mentor. The kindness that keeps a family together is the same kindness that connects members of this group. It shows up in your poetry, in your emails to me, in your comments and reviews of each month's poems.
Thank you, all of you, for making Verse-Virtual a place where we each can thrive, not just survive.
This month, we are introducing a feature called "Appreciations". It shares the concept of the comments/reviews that are sent in each month, but has a different focus, which is on books or chapbooks authored by members of this community. Detailed information can be found HERE. Start thinking about a book you own, written by another V-V member that really rocked. Since this is a new feature for V-V, there will be inevitable questions, some of which we anticipate, others may surprise us. Email your questions to appreciations4vv@gmail.com. I believe this will open some new avenues for interacting with each other, and will add to our sense of community. Prove me right.
Submissions for September are open from August 1 to August 10 at midnight. Please take your time zone into account—I won't take anything before 00:01 AM Pacific Time on the 1st day, or 11:59 PM Pacific Time on the last day. The OPTIONAL theme for September is "Changes", however you interpret that.