Poetry Friday: Overheard

OVERHEARD AT NCTE

Begin with gratitude.1
Center joy.2

Place is where stories start.3
You write yourself into existence.4

If you don’t know where you are
you probably don’t know who you are.5

Black poetry is light in darkness

                            hope

                            soul food

                            legacy.6

There is no wrong way to be a writer.7
We can bend the characters–they won’t break.8
Creativity is combinatory.9

Learning should be a collective.10
In relationships and connections we find meaning.11

We learn from reading.12
Characters inspire us and make us brave.13

Reading is the most subversive thing we can do.14

Overhead and Remixed by Mary Lee Hahn, 2025

This post is my contribution to the Poetry Sisters’ challenge to write an “overheard” poem. For my overheard, I used my notes from NCTE, and in the image you can see my away-from-home-no-laptop process. It was fun to go back to the basics/old school. After I drafted in my notebook and did the cut-and-paste recombination, I began my post on my phone and a whole new learning curve emerged: how to format! Thank goodness I can at least bumble in html. 

Edited to add a link to the roundup at Buffy’s blog. Only a couple of the Poetry Sisters managed a post this month, what with NCTE and Life and All. You can find them on the roundup. Edited also to add the sources for each of my quotes.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

  1. Robin Wall Kimmerer ↩︎
  2. Katie Papesh ↩︎
  3. Mahogany Browne ↩︎
  4. Allan Wolf ↩︎
  5. Ralph Ellison, quoted by Gretchen Schroeder ↩︎
  6. panel with Nikki Grimes and Carol Boston Weatherford ↩︎
  7. Liz Garton Scanlon ↩︎
  8. Scott Snyder ↩︎
  9. Jason Chin ↩︎
  10. Stella Villalba ↩︎
  11. Jason Chin ↩︎
  12. Katie Wood Ray ↩︎
  13. Scott Snyder ↩︎
  14. Percival Everett ↩︎

13 thoughts on “Poetry Friday: Overheard”

  1. First, KUDOS to your phone skills. I’ve done a bit of HTML on a phone and it is NOT my favorite thing. At all. I have not done a whole post. Goodness.

    Second of all, I’ve never been to NCTE, but it makes all of you shine so brightly when you come back that I know it must be revelatory — especially from your shared notes. Thank you for bringing back a pail to fill our wells, too.

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  2. To piggyback on Tania’s eyedears – the NCTE report is elevating [& it’s not surprising that multi-media artist you, can play the phone pad so adroitly.] As a retired news editor & reporter, I ADORE overheard words & am especially drawn to your reporting of someone’s

    “Reading is the most subversive thing we can do.”

    BUT they are all gems.

    Q from offside: May I appreciate you in advance for corralling the 2026 #PF schedule? And if you know already, when?

    Many joys of the Giving Thanks Weekend to you & Your Family from your fan, Jan

    “

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  4. Wow, Mary Lee. Is there an NCTE magazine? If so, submit this! Wonderfully positive and inspiring. “Learning should be a collective” is my favorite line. It certainly applies to Poetry Friday for me. I learn a lot from all of you.

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  5. NCTE must have been fun with all those inspiring words you collected, Mary Lee. How wonderful that you had the pleasure of hearing Percival Everett speak, and his words- truth! I can work on my phone when needed, but I don’t like it! Kudos to you for the accomplishment! And, Happy weekend!

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  6. Glad that you had a fantastic conference, Mary Lee and also that you got to learn new things. I don’t like formatting on my phone – I use my laptop for most posts. I like the comment you overheard that there’s no wrong way to be a writer. Sounds like you had a lot to be grateful for on this Thanksgiving. (I didn’t post this week – just popping in to support others and stay up to date.)

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  8. Love all these lines–and together they add up to even more! These really struck me:”You write yourself into existence.””There is no wrong way to be a writer.” (Ah, such permission that we all (at least I) need!)

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  9. HTML on a phone?! I bow to you, grand master!

    And not only did you create a marvelous overheard poem, but I feel as if I got a micro-version of this gem of a gathering. Thanks for sharing all that wisdom, and for footnoting it (not that I’d expect anything less from a great teacher!) 🙂

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  10. First, I cannot BELIEVE that the only time I got to see you was out in the crowd that Friday morning at my panel. Thank you for coming and I wish I’d gotten to hug you!!

    I love love love this combo of lines — I was far lazier and wrote mine using only ONE found line as a jumping off point. But this is soooo evocative.

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  11. Mary Lee! Your poem, “Overheard at NCTE” made my writer’s heart soar. I love every line, especially, “If you don’t know where you are /you probably don’t know who you are…” so much wisdom and encouragement here! I absolutely loved how you referenced each speaker, another wonderful layer and I enjoyed matching up the lines to the speaker. What a great poem to launch writing and inspire all of us to pick up our pencils. Thank you so much!

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