You mean “Mandala Effect”? Because that’s what we’ve always called it.

(This is a joke.)

you won!

swag. It will be a good day when you finally give them (whoever “they” are).

!!!

Another friend has also recommended Dennis Lee.

this, too, is a poem. Thanks for sharing it!

Also very very habit-forming, as I discovered as a teenager. It was a feeling of immense power, being able to externalize my thoughts and feelings in that way.

the thinner the ice, the better! Or as Lorca would call it, duende.

Thanks for this idea. I’ll find some examples. Should be fun!

It also emphasizes the fact that the farther poetry gets from music, the less poetic it is.

this definition is also an ars poetica! 🫶

I think my actual answer as much as I care to have one and works for kids too is "words that make music when you say them out loud"

beautiful. Thanks!

Words that want to be music.

I love this. Also more age-appropriate than Anne Carson’s "If prose is a house, poetry is a man on fire running quite fast through it." 🙃

I love it!

As someone else commented in response, we mostly know it on an innate level. But I also feel I’d like to be able to describe it to a young child. (I’m also not qualified to answer parenting questions, and I’ve been at it for almost 10 years.)

you’re right! But I really need to work on a definition that would make sense to her. I’m taking it as a personal challenge. 😀

I told her a poem is a like a song that is written or spoken. I struggled some more. She eventually got bored and walked away.

My 5 year-old asked “What’s a poem?” when I told her what I was scribbling on the side while I made lunch. My older kid and I really struggled to explain. How does one define poetry for a kindergartener?

Me when I started having nightmares set in my childhood home again, after I already beat that level.

wow that’s a full production’s worth of material. You likely woke up tied, combined with the muscle relaxation of REM sleep.

the machines don’t know what’s going on. 😀 Hope the turn of the seasons is easier on your sinuses (or at least less dry).

I have more nightmares when I’m stressed so…maybe I’ll read it at a more stable time. But thanks for the recommendation!

I hadn’t read that Le Guin, but now I will!

My sleep tracker tells me I had a sleep score of 99. The highest I've ever had. But I spent more time in REM sleep, having ridiculous, distressing dreams. I feel very poorly rested and sad. But yay for my high score.

He’s going to need a new target soon. What a profoundly sick man.

the body keeps the score, unfortunately. I can feel the allostatic load of all the dread. This *cannot* be healthy.

I’m right there with you!

I was more terrified that he was going to murder an entire country of people, and we would just stand by and let it happen. Visceral fear.

not a direct match but The Cloverfield Paradox came to mind.