Labor of Love: Why Poets Keep Showing Up

Looking back on Labor Day, we’re thinking about the work behind the work—the effort it takes to write, revise, and return to the page again and again. Poetry, after all, is labor. Not the kind that comes with timecards and breaks, but the kind that demands heart, attention, and resilience.

At Kentucky State Poetry Society, we believe that poetic labor is worth honoring. Whether you’re squeezing in a stanza before bed or wrestling with a manuscript draft, your work matters. It matters to readers, to your community, and to you.

So this week, we invite you to reflect on what brings you back to the page. Is it a sense of wonder? A need for truth? The joy of shaping sound and image?

Here’s to the labor of poetry. The quiet kind. The bold kind. The kind that helps us make sense of the world—and ourselves.

Upcoming Craft Talk with Clay Matthews on September 16

What do marionettes and musical chords, tapestries and trapezes have in common with poetry?

Join poet and professor Clay Matthews for String Theory: An Exploration of Poetry that Employs Multiple Threads—a craft talk dedicated to unraveling the secret scaffolding that holds our poems together.

🗓️ Tuesday, September 16
🕖 7:00 PM (ET)
📍 Live via Zoom (Free with registration)

In this generative workshop, Matthews invites poets to consider how dissonant images, voices, and themes can be braided into a single cohesive piece. What makes some poems feel seamless, even when they’re full of contrast and contradiction? How do you give the illusion of flow when the content is anything but linear?

We’ll read examples of multi-threaded poems, explore the craft choices that allow those poems to sing, and dive into prompts designed to help participants experiment with their own layered drafts. Expect lively discussion, a little risk, and a lot of surprise.

This session is part of our Kentucky Voices programming and is open to all experience levels. Whether you’re working on a sprawling epic or a tight lyric, this talk will offer strategies to balance complexity with clarity.

Registration is open now – don’t miss out!

Ready to start your membership with Kentucky State Poetry Society? Become a member today!