So my mom called me this morning just to tell me that it was Poem In Your Pocket Day. Basically, in honor of National Poetry Month, you’re supposed to carry a poem around in your pocket (obvs), sharing it with those you encounter throughout the day.

As one of those word nerd sorts — who used to write absolutely hideous poetry as a child…and…um…a college student — my favorite poem is unsurprisingly related to writing…or at least to the power of words:

“A word is dead

when it is said

some say.

I say it just

begins to live

that day.”

- Emily Dickinson

In these six lines, Dickinson manages to encompass everything that inspires me as a writer: the message I’m trying to convey with my words, the connections I’m hoping to make with my readers, the blind hope that the words I put out there won’t disappear into a black void of nothingness.

I’ve loved this poem since elementary school, and I still thrill in seeing it engraved on the sidewalk leading up to the NY Public Library. In the same way, I’ve always known I wanted to be a writer (even though I also considered alternative careers: ballerina, actress, archaeologist, psychologist). It’s so gratifying to see myself doing today what I always wanted to do.

Did you carry a poem in your pocket today?