Sarah Kay

You never know who...

needs a poem that you're writing and you never know who is on the other side of a door that you can open for them into poetry and it was so meaningful to me that i kept the letter and figured i'd never see this kid ever again but was grateful to him and last week i had a show

about 30 minutes south of Atlanta for my new book.

And I was at the table signing books afterwards.

And this young man walked up holding his phone in front of him to show me a photograph.

And he was like, hi, I'm sure you don't remember, but I actually met you a long time ago.

You came to perform at my school with Franny.

And I looked at the photograph and I was like, wait,

did you write me a letter?

And he was like, yeah, I did.

And I was like, of course I remember you.

And he was like, I can't believe you remember that.

And I was like, I can't believe you're a whole grownup.

I'm a medical doctor.

Oh, wow.

So he's a family doctor.

His wife was there.

I got to meet her.

She's a third grade teacher.

It was so lovely because when I teach poetry workshops, I'm not teaching them with the belief that all of these kids are going to become poets.