Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Adopting Poetry (Texas) and Reaching for the Stars

By Will Willingham 22 Comments

Naming poetry stars night sky
Sometimes, poetry has a strong sense of place.

Sometimes, poetry is a place.

That poetry can be a place is a thing known intimately by the 90-and-change good folks who live near the intersection of Farm Roads 986 and 1565 in Kaufman County, in the little unincorporated town of Poetry, Texas. We made the discovery when Rick Maxson, the poet-editor behind our Every Day Poems publication, shared in a virtual editorial team meeting recently that he had, on behalf of Every Day Poems and Tweetspeak Poetry, adopted Poetry, Texas.

Poetry Texas Adoption Certificate

A few years ago, Falling Tree Productions spent some time in Poetry reporting for a podcast on BBC. The account is poetic in its own way, sharing interviews with the locals about the town’s history and ongoing struggle to keep the small community viable.

Like a lot of poetry, the town of Poetry started out as something else. The Texas Almanac (where you can adopt your own town for just $25) recalls that the town was first named by Elisha Turner after being awarded “a patent to a league and a labor of land” by Anson Jones, who was the last president of the Republic of Texas, back when that was a thing. Apparently along with patents and leagues and labors of land, a guy like Turner also got naming rights. There was some confusion at the post office, and in 1876 the postal service asked that the town of Turner’s Point be renamed to something less like another town. Good poetry has its own unique voice, so it’s fitting, really, that a local merchant named Maston Ussery suggested the name Poetry, “because the area in springtime reminded him of a poem.” The Almanac doesn’t say if he meant the idea of a poem or a real poem, and if so, what poem that might have been.

A lot has happened since 1876. We’ve put people in space and created telescopes big enough and powerful enough to see the whole galaxy. I imagine Maston Ussery might find that reminds him a little bit of a poem, too. And maybe he’d want to name a star after that poem, and after his place in Poetry, Texas.

He’s not here to do it, but Tweetspeak has always wanted to put poetry into space. On the moon, precisely, but with the NASA priorities as they stand right now we’re happy to work with the stars in the meantime. After Rick (our Every Day Poems editor) adopted a little town in Texas named Poetry, Tweetspeak took the liberty (or, poetic license as it were) of naming a star in a far off constellation for Poetry. You can even see it here, twinkling bright in the sky.

Poetry star

Like our little town, Poetry the star came with its own adoption certificate. If you visit the profile online, you’ll find a poem written for the occasion.

Poetry
probably began
in the stars.

Though some would
say it began
in the moon.

We’re choosing
stardust
at least for today.

Stardust
for you.

Just look to the sky
and open your hand.

*love, Tweetspeak

—L.L. Barkat

Tweetspeak in the Stars

It is believed that we are all made, at least in part, from stars. Joni Mitchell sang at Woodstock that “we are stardust.” Carl Sagan said that “The very matter that makes us up was generated long ago, far away, in red giant stars.” Even Walt Whitman wrote that “A blade of grass is the journeywork of the stars.”

Astrophysicist Karel Schrijver has said that “most of the material that we’re made of comes out of dying stars, or stars that died in explosions. And those stellar explosions continue. We have stuff in us as old as the universe, and then some stuff that landed here maybe only a hundred years ago. And all of that mixes in our bodies.”

So if we’re made up of the stuff of stars, and stars are made up at least a little bit out of poetry, maybe it’s also true that we are also made up, at least a little, of poems. If that’s true, there’s plenty of space in … space … for more poetry. Not long after our star appeared in the Centaurus constellation, someone else adopted a star in the neighborhood (the star-naming people let you be neighborly like that) and named it Neruda. And then, soon enough, along came Emily. And then Sonnet.

We can’t all make the trip to Poetry, Texas. (Though I think Rick may have.) But we can meet in the stars. Join us in naming more of Poetry’s celestial neighbors (you can do it for free). Just visit our star’s page and choose “Name a Star Nearby.” We’d love to hear from you if you name a star. Tell us what name you chose in the comments, and if you write a poem for your star, all the better (but certainly not required).

We’ll be looking for you in the night sky.

Photo by Thanasis Papathanasiou, Creative Commons license via Flickr. Post by Will Willingham.

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Will Willingham
Will Willingham
Director of Many Things; Senior Editor, Designer and Illustrator at Tweetspeak Poetry
I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel is Adjustments.
Will Willingham
Latest posts by Will Willingham (see all)
  • Earth Song Poem Featured on The Slowdown!—Birds in Home Depot - February 7, 2023
  • The Rapping in the Attic—Happy Holidays Fun Video! - December 21, 2022
  • Video: Earth Song: A Nature Poems Experience—Enchanting! - December 6, 2022

Filed Under: Blog, poetry

Try Every Day Poems...

About Will Willingham

I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel is Adjustments.

Comments

  1. L.L. Barkat says

    November 2, 2017 at 8:38 am

    I love this! Especially the part about maybe all of us having poems in us, via the stars. Fun musing. 🙂 Poignant, even.

    I do look forward to some new poetic stars in the Poetry neighborhood in the constellation Centaurus. And I suppose there’s a poem in that, too. 🙂

    Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      November 2, 2017 at 4:22 pm

      I imagine there is. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Sandra Heska King says

    November 2, 2017 at 11:50 am

    I named two nearby stars.

    Prufrock – For all those who dare.

    Memory – In honor of all those hearts that beat to the rhythm of memorized poems

    Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      November 2, 2017 at 4:22 pm

      Very excited to have these neighbors. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Maureen says

    November 2, 2017 at 12:47 pm

    A found poem sourced in your text:

    Ode to Dying Stars

    Night sky of dying stars
    old as the universe,
    you made space for us
    in your springtime galaxy —
    our explosions into being
    like stellar little poems
    that soon enough appeared
    in a constellation made visible
    from far away.

    Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      November 2, 2017 at 4:21 pm

      Really beautiful, Maureen. Thank you. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Katie says

    November 2, 2017 at 1:15 pm

    What about “TweetSpeak” for a star name?;)

    Here is another stacked poem inspired by this post:

    “Texas Night Sky”

    almanac
    universe
    galaxy
    telescopes
    space
    stars
    Centaur constellation
    twinkling
    TweetSpeak
    stellar explosions
    Neruda
    Emily
    sonnet
    celestial neighbors
    ascension
    declination
    magnitude
    poetry

    Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      November 2, 2017 at 4:22 pm

      Love that title. 🙂

      Reply
      • Katie says

        November 3, 2017 at 11:41 am

        Thank you, LW:)

        Reply
  5. Bethany R. says

    November 3, 2017 at 10:15 am

    Love this.

    Reply
  6. Katie says

    November 3, 2017 at 11:43 am

    shining
    bright, luminous
    distantly glittering
    a sight we can hardly fathom
    starlight

    Reply
  7. Katie says

    November 3, 2017 at 7:50 pm

    Psalm 147:4 He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.

    Reply
  8. Katie says

    November 11, 2017 at 8:58 am

    On November 5th, we and some others of my husband’s family gathered to celebrate his mother’s 90th birthday. What a fun surprise when my sis-in-law presented the birthday gal with the certificate showing a star named for her:) There was happy applause and jovial comments relating to the question: “What DO you get a nonagenarian, anyway?!”

    In honor of the occasion and this strong woman I dedicate this cinquain in her honor:

    lots and
    lots of love shared
    over many decades
    nurturing, giving, showing us
    the way

    Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      November 11, 2017 at 9:51 am

      Oh, what a great gift. 🙂

      Reply
  9. jack griner says

    November 11, 2017 at 7:50 pm

    [ picked out a star that was shining so bright
    It hovered up high and would shine there all night
    When a poem is for lovers they grab and hold tight
    sliding on a rainbow but that star kept them in sight

    Reply
  10. jack griner says

    November 11, 2017 at 7:57 pm

    I try to send a poem each day to poetry Com
    doing it for a long time

    Reply
  11. jack griner says

    November 11, 2017 at 8:41 pm

    Name that star Stay Put

    Stay put couldn’t give in to temtation
    Others wondered around to get more light
    Stay put couldn’t help so warned them
    just the other night
    Don’t you know you may get lost
    Read a poem about a star wondering
    around over in the westernmost
    Got mixed up so now they just coast

    Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      November 12, 2017 at 6:51 pm

      “Don’t you know you may get lost.”

      There is something particularly endearing to me about a star saying this. 🙂

      Reply
  12. Rick Maxson says

    November 21, 2017 at 4:53 am

    LW, I finally have gotten in a few breaths after moving to Canyon Lake in the Texas Hill Country. This piece is perfect. I love all the information on stars.

    I guess you could say that Poetry, Texas is a Haiku of a place. In Spring we might steal a thought:

    The apparition of these daisies by the road; Petals on a wet, black bough.

    Reply
  13. John MacKinnon says

    February 17, 2018 at 7:38 pm

    Enamoured Me

    If my mom had named me Vincent
    Would my go van blow a tire
    If my mom had named me Pablo
    Would my water flow like fire
    If my mom had named me Salvador
    Would my real name be Dali
    If my mom had named me Ludwig
    Would my symphony still be

    If my world had circled Saturn
    Could I give the Sun a ring
    If time hurled from forward fissions
    Would I still hear Lennon sing

    If my mom had named me Vincent
    Would all my colours still bleed through
    If my mom had named me Pablo
    Would my pieces still seek you
    If my mom had named me Salvador
    Would my sky just be a door
    If my mom had named me Ludwig
    Could my music matter more

    If my universe was tiny
    Would my thoughts grow larger still
    If my mom had named me Vincent
    Would my starry night fulfill

    Jmac

    Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      February 18, 2018 at 12:19 pm

      “Would my sky just be a door” — I like that. 🙂 Thanks for sharing, John.

      Reply
  14. John MacKinnon says

    February 18, 2018 at 1:03 pm

    AbSOLution

    And in the final desperate times
    The children all were gathered
    The dogs released to scout the line
    Where nothing living mattered

    And rockets raced upon their marks
    High up amongst the heavens
    Now sturdy cedars withheld brave barks
    Becoming hidden havens

    Yet all the while the rivers wept
    For streams lost coinciding
    The mothers treasures closely kept
    Near arms grown weary hiding

    And lastly before stars were joined
    An instant moment later
    Old Sol the Sun, new light purloined,
    Smiled back at the Creator

    Jmac

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our May Menu

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

The Graphic Novel

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

meet The Yellow Wallpaper characters

How to Write Poetry

Your Comments

  • Glynn on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Sandra Fox Murphy on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Glynn on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”
  • Bethany R. on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2025 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy