Yvette Nelson • Once a World

Once a World, by Yvette Nelson, is the first individual-author book published by the Laurel Poetry Collective of the Twin Cities. Nelson's spare and quietly profound poems reveal her spiritual core; they are anchored in images of Midwest prairie landscape, long winters and wildlife. They reflect the wisdom of a studious mind, and a soul trained in spiritual practice.

Kindness

From a church deep

in summer fields

you might see

a new version

of the world

through the window

someone

was kind enough

to prop open

with a worn hymnal.

From Once a World, by Yvette Nelson

About Yvette

A Minnesota Voices Project winner, Yvette Nelson published her first book of poetry, We'll Come When it Rains, in 1982. Her work has also appeared in The Talking of Hands (New Rivers) and Water~Stone. After 40 years as a teacher and editor, she is retired and lives in Minneapolis.

Yvette on Writing Poetry

You need paper and pencils. Your hands must be warm.

You need to feel the deep pleasure of rivers. On days

you cannot feel this, you simply have to believe it.

You have to be grateful. You have to learn the double

meaning of yield. You have to love and risk your little life.

From The Double Meaning of Yield: Laurel Poets on Writing Poetry