Notes About The Poem

I appreciate every single person on this website, my head stays afloat because of you.

THANK YOU with all my HEART!

Tom Woody
Contest Name What Poetry Soup Means To Me 
2/15/2026

The Anchor of the Word

October arrived with a cold, clinical weight. I remember the sharp edge of my car keys pressing into my palm as I walked to the parking lot, the Oklahoma sky suddenly blurred. In that silence, I wasn't a person, just a diagnosis-until I opened the app, a glow in the dark of the front seat. The cursor blinked like a heart monitor, waiting for the "why" to finally become a syllable. Then, the first line broke the surface. I found a rhyme for the ache, a metaphor for the strength I didn't know I held. On PoetrySoup, the chaos began to settle into stanzas; each poem was a small victory over the shadows, a way to reclaim my body through my voice. I wasn't just writing into the dark. I read the verses of strangers turned kin-others who had weathered their own storms. In their comments and their cadences, I found a sanctuary where I wasn't "the patient," but a poet, standing whole among the words. This is my life raft: a community of ink that kept me afloat when the tide was high.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2026

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Etgen-Baker Avatar
February 21, 2026 at 5:17 PM
I agree....PS is a life raft--a way of finding one's self in the murky waters. Sorry to hear of your battle with cancer; glad you're a survivor. My young niece is a two time survivor...Like you, she's so courageous.
Patterson Avatar
February 26, 2026 at 8:53 AM
Thank you
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