Time of Singing, Time of Inspiration

The latest edition of Time of Singing, the quarterly Christian poetry magazine, arrived this weekend. Poetry’s not my thing, other than the poetry I find in lyrics written by the likes of Waylon Jennings, Jimmy Webb, and Kris Kristofferson. And yet, I always savor the new issue of TOS, and the thoughtful work found within. This month’s contest winner, “Only the Shadow” by Jo Ann Hays, particularly resonated with me.

I probably wouldn’t know about TOS if I hadn’t met the publisher, Lora Zill, back in the summer of 2005. Lora’s the director of the St. Davids Christian Writers’ Conference, and I was invited to present that year. Since then, we’ve forged a strong friendship, including a marvelous weekend together in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, and I’ve become Lora’s assistant director for the conference.

To me, this is the essence of friendship. Lora knows poetry. I don’t. Lora reads a lot more broadly than I do; I write fiction, she doesn’t. Our political views are different. Our approaches to life are very different; I’m always ready to throw caution to the wind and try something new; Lora’s more cautious about change. Through this friendship, we grow and we learn. We push each other out of our respective comfort zones. We fight, but we fight fair and we both always know we’re going to come back to the same place… friends and sisters in Christ (and a mutual admiration of Jon Bon Jovi and Neil Diamond!).