A few weeks ago, my family and I traveled to Branson, Missouri on vacation. We had a great time, visiting the Titanic exhibit, going to the theme park, checking out shops and just enjoying the scenery and down time. One highlight of the visit though was to meet one of you!

Kathleen who has been linking in for the last month dropped me a DM on twitter letting me know she worked in Branson. Several days later we met at Steak n’Shake and had a chance to meet each other—and gave my boys the chance to have a milk shake for breakfast (oh my).

The previous day Claudia and Mary had a chance to meet in Germany. Earlier this year, several of us met in New York.

It is interesting to meet someone you know only through their words—and seeing if your mental picture of them holds true. I will say, Kathleen is a wonderful down to earth person that is truly in love with where she is living and has a great heart as well.

For me it gives perspective on what we do here every week.

There is a flesh & blood person behind every one of these links and when they pen the poem they are going to share they entrust us with just a bit of them in that brief moment. And we respond. It is rather humbling.

We are not just poeming but building community – a community that cares not just for the words on the page, but the people behind them. That is where the beauty is for me.

Recently, my company closed and I am searching for employment and you don’t know what encouragement it has been to wake up some mornings and see a comment from someone either inquiring on how it is going or just shining a little ray of hope—to put one more application out there.

All that said…if you ever get the opportunity to meet some our poets, I encourage it—now lets get this thing started…

If you are new, here is how it works:

• Write a poem and post it to your webpage.li>
• Link in the poem you’d like to share (1 per blog, please) by clicking on the Mr.Linky button just below.
• This opens a new screen where you’ll enter your information, and where you also choose links to read. Once you have pasted your poem’s blog url and entered your name, simply click submit.
• Don’t forget to let your readers know where you’re linking up and encourage them to participate by including a link to dVerse in your blog post.
• Visit as many other poems as you like, commenting as you see fit. If you you don’t know where to stert or would like to know a few poets that definitely reciprocrate and are interested in building community, email me.
• Spread the word. Feel free to tweet and share on the social media of your choice.
• Finally, enjoy!

See you out on the trail. ~Brian