Poetry Is

Loretta Diane Walker

June 13, 2021

Poetry is the soul’s microscope.

That powerful eye that sees beyond

what is beneath the hidden.

It is society’s archivist.

The record keeper of all deeds

gardened beneath the sun.

It is a coin minted in questions and answers,

God’s seventh right hand,

the simplicity and complexity of

what is.

Loretta Diane Walker, an award-winning poet, multiple Pushcart Nominee, and Best of the Net Nominee, won the 2016 Phyllis Wheatley Book Award for poetry, for her collection, In This House (Bluelight Press). Loretta is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters. Her work has appeared in various literary journals, magazines, and anthologies throughout the United States, Canada, India, Ireland, and the UK. She has published five collections of poetry. Her manuscript Word Ghetto won the 2011 Bluelight Press Book Award. Loretta received a BME from Texas Tech University and earned a MA from The University of Texas of the Permian Basin. She teaches elementary music at Reagan Magnet School, Odessa, Texas.