from The Rhythm of It, by Anita Sullivan

Poets have always walked the world with their ears extended like antennae, sifting the air for poetic snippets. They know the basic rhythms by heart, but need a constant supply of new images and ideas to pour into these rhythm patterns. . . . The only catch is that poems have a mind of their own. Each time we try to marry a rhythm pattern to a set of words that seems to fit, the pattern is either smitten or not by the supplicants. If not, we can’t look to meter or rhyme to bail us out; we have to put on our boots and go back out onto the land, like a bridegroom becoming worthy of his ideal bride.

—Anita Sullivan, The Rhythm of It

from The Rhythm of It, by Anita Sullivan

Poets have always walked the world with their ears extended like antennae, sifting the air for poetic snippets. They know the basic rhythms by heart, but need a constant supply of new images and ideas to pour into these rhythm patterns.

—Anita Sullivan, The Rhythm of It

from The Dancing Clock, by Nancy Gerber

The past is like an old faded photograph, familiar yet unrecognizable because so much has changed.

The future is like one of those instant Polaroid snapshots before it brightens into focus, blurry and impossible to read.

Every day is precarious and fragile as we dance with time, a most unrelenting, demanding partner.

—Nancy Gerber, The Dancing Clock