The day after The Forget-Me-Nots was released, I received an email from my sister with the subject line "Not the Family Poet." Attached to the email was a beautiful tribute poem she had written about her husband's grandparents.

The day after that I received an early birthday present from my oldest son. He sent me a Willow Tree figurine holding forget-me-nots. Perhaps more meaningful was the card--an original haiku including the book title.

A few weeks ago one of my dear poet-reader friends sent one of her poems to me for critique. Her poem "The Forget-Me-Knots" is a well-written persona poem I had the privilege to read.

As an author, I love to encourage the inspiration of others. I feel it is one of my responsibilities as much as it is a natural response. After all, I learned this skill from my grandmother, the person I consider our family poet.

I am missing her a little more these days. I wish she was here to celebrate the release of the novel her life influenced and inspired.

Perhaps that is the role all family poets play--to influence and inspire others to write their own poetry. In that way, we are each responsible for sharing our natural response with others. It is our tribute, our persona poem, our original haiku.