by Jacqueline Suskind

I’m a professional poet. One of the best-known aspects of my work is what I call Poem Store. I set up a typewriter in a public place and write poems on request for whatever people choose to pay.

I wrote a story for Guideposts it was about an unlikely friendship with one of my Poem Store customers, Neal. He asked me to write a poem commemorating his wife, who had recently died of cancer. 

Many readers wrote me about my story. Some were moved by Neal’s devotion to his wife. Others wrote about their own love of nature. Above all, readers told me how much they love poetry, especially the way it connects them to God and helps unite people across divides of politics and belief.

I’ve always believed poetry is a conversation with God. It felt deeply affirming to learn readers feel the same way.

All my life I’ve read, written and been nurtured by poetry. I’ve also developed a simple but nourishing prayer practice. I use poetry in my prayers. Lately I’ve begun to think that, in many important ways, poems are prayers. Hearing from readers, talking to my Poem Store customers, watching the faces of children when I speak in schools, I see evidence every day of the spiritual power of words. My own story shows how a love of words—especially that way of arranging words we call poetry—can become a life-sustaining source of spiritual connection...READ THE WHOLE STORY + WATCH A VIDEO ABOUT THE POET (scroll down the page and click on the video)