Do you ever feel small and that what you do seems insignificant? I sure do from time to time. I started The Henderson Poets, a group that meets on Tuesday evenings at The Coffee House close to my home. We are small in number but that does not matter one iota to me. People from all walks of life show up. Some times 15 or more people show up, other times it’s less. But I keep plugging on and do you know why? Because I believe what I’m doing matters! We live in a society where everyone is always number crunching. We measure success by the number of books we sold or the numbers in our bank account and even our number of friends on Facebook. Did you ever stop to consider that small is the new big? What if me showing up at the Coffee House every Tuesday night is just to touch one other soul?
A few weeks ago I invited a very nice man to join us. He said he writes poetry but he had never shared before. Last night he came and shared poems he wrote during what seems to have been a traumatic divorce. He moved all of us because as he read, he wept openly. Dear readers, that is why I LOVE what I do. I believe poetry is meant to be performed live. A dear friend of mine said to me upon our first meeting,” Our words are our life.” How true that is! How amazing it is and an honor to have the chance to give other poets a platform from which they can come and bare their souls to us. We all benefit when a soul reaches out to touch us with their light.
So next time you think what you do is not important consider that maybe your presence in some one’s life might be the one thing that is keeping that person alive. The work you do no matter how menial in your eyes, maybe some one else’s miracle and moment of joy. Take your eyes off the numbers and value what you do because really, you’re the only one capable of doing what you do. What you do and who you are is irreplaceable..think on that!
-EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2012
Eva Santiago 
That’s really so true! I’ve never been to a poetry reading, but now I’m intrigued. I think I’ll look for one in my area. Thanks for the suggestion!
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or if there is not one in your area how about starting one? There was not one where I live so I went ahead and did it ;)Merry Christmas and thanks for commenting!
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I agree, thank you for your post. Poetry performance is good for the soul. I do it with music and dance. 🙂
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What you do sounds awesome and keep it going!!
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Thanks 🙂 You too. Sharing poetry is a beautiful way to communicate, and there are so many ways to do this.
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The perspective you express in this post is more important in this “viral” age than ever before. One of my daughters is a poet, and when we attend her readings, there generally are fewer than two dozen people there — many of them folks we saw at the last reading. At one of these events, I could hear the sounds of the cars going by on a nearby highway. How fortunate we were, I thought, we eighteen or twenty people, to be in here instead of out there. How fortunate we were that for those two hours or so, nothing was more important to us than opening our minds to the art and skill of these poets.
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What a beautiful sentiment and thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. I plan to keep doing what I do because it’s my way of giving back to my community. 🙂
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