a tiny poetry collection

as found in my Notes app

Hi, I’m Deidre!

I’m an author, poet, editor, writing coach, and the founder of the Nonfiction Book Proposal Cohort. I work as the Editorial Content Director for The Truly Co. Magazine and also as a freelance editor for books with publishers like Zondervan, Thomas Nelson, and Dayspring. I am currently an M.Div student at Pillar Seminary.

Every first and third Wednesday of the month, I host Office Hour with an Editor on Zoom for paid subscribers, a place where you can drop in and receive feedback on current writing projects, ask questions about anything writerly, and collaborate and hear from other incredible writers in this community. If it has to do with writing, it’s fair game!

Here are the next three dates so you can mark them in your calendar and plan to come:

• Wednesday, April 1 from 1:30-2:30 PM EST

• Wednesday, April 15 from 1:30-2:30 PM EST

• Wednesday, May 6 from 1:30-2:30 PM EST

Click the post below for more information about Office Hours and for the Zoom link to join! 👇🏻

I hope to see you there!

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You know how Stephen King talks about “killing your darlings,” those characters and lines you love, even though they don’t ultimately serve the story?

Yeah. Well I can never bear to kill them.

So instead I let them live in my Notes app, where every so often I can scroll through and give them my regards, promising that someday, one day, I will find a way to set them free.

Because April begins tomorrow (thank goodness), I thought it would be fun to ring in National Poetry Month with this tiny poetry collection—a bit of an homage to all the ponderings and poems that live in every artist’s Notes app, just waiting for the perfect home.

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AS FOUND IN MY NOTES APP: A TINY POETRY COLLECTION

I.

IN THE CROWDED AIRPORT

In a crowded airport
I heard the softest kiss.
A father I might find large and
imposing, a man I do not know
touched his lips to the cheek 
of his baby daughter 

and she
received it the way a queen
might permit a touch 
to her royal scepter. 

II.

THE TRICKLING BROOK 

The trickling brook
is more true. I have to believe that
as I stand sighing, a witness to both worlds
in the liminal space beneath the sun on
a cold winter morn. 
Here the bird sings louder
than the riot of society, so I have no choice but 
to believe that nature still
reigns, triumphant as
the golden light that gives 
naked trees the luster of life. 

III.

MY BABY SAYS

My baby says the moon
is not the moon
it is snow in the sky
and I forgot until now
the world is what you make it

IV.

MUCH HUMANITY

So much humanity
has passed through us all.
How do we even 
manage 
to carry
all that we know and 
have seen? I wonder as I look 
into the face of a man I do not know

and feel my stomach clutch
with tenderness.

V.

MUSCLE MEMORY

I am beginning to
remember something
from long ago. Whispers of 
pre-creation rise up from the
ether of my subconscious
like gossamer, like the first full whiff
of mud in winter's warming. It comes
only in hints, of course. I have a hunch
I will not taste the full course
until I die and return to eternity; for now
I’ll have to make do with
welcomed ghosts, and this
muscle memory. 

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Do you have a darling living in your Notes app? Share it in the comments. I would love to read it!