Last year I had the privilege of teaching a creative writing class with an extraordinary group of high schoolers. Many of these students had taken previous classes with me and were interested in my work as an author. In a lesson on sensory details, I shared my poem “Cello.” After enthusiastically analyzing the poem, one student asked, “Ms. Michael, is ‘Cello’ one of your favorite poem children?”
I found his question so endearing that I began to contemplate my “poem children.” I do have favorites — poems that repay me with insight even after I’ve reread them, poems that navigate me effortlessly to their white-hot kernel of inspiration.
Since its publication in 2014, “Cello” has repaid my efforts. I wanted to turn the liquid vitality of music into words. I was inspired to write it based on this song:
“Cello” first appeared in Artemis Journal in 2014. Here’s what it looked like on the page:
If you’re unable to read the text in the photo, you can click the link in the opening paragraph and read or listen to the poem. I recorded the audio.
“Cello” made an impression on the editor of Artemis. Five years later, it was recommended for a unique publication opportunity: a pamphlet for Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital called Poems in the Waiting Room. These pamphlets were designed to offer poems of peace and healing for families with loved ones in the hospital.
Also in 2019, “Cello” appeared in Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature, linked above. And it was included in my first book, Neoteny: Poems from Finishing Line Press.
So “Cello” got its start in a print journal, moved to an online journal, landed in a hospital waiting room, and served as the final poem in Neoteny. Now, it has a new form and a new home! “Cello” has been carved into a picnic table in Cobourg, Ontario. This table is part of the POETCHRY accessible poetry exhibit that allows people to read poems while sitting at the table in the Ecology Garden. Here is a photo of “Cello” as etched by the master woodworker:
I’m proud of this poem child who has traveled far and reached many. I hope it continues to give its readers restorationn and peace.
And “Cello” has a sibling, making its debut in POETCHRY, a poem called “Backyard by Ear.”
Poetry continues to change and revive us. Poetry calls us to the beauty that already exists and the beauty that we are able to build.
On the Blink 