A Line Meant: A Collaborative Poetry Collection

by Dasha Hamilton (Editor)

In A Line Meant, the first of several planned community poetry projects, Poet Laureate of Wisconsin Dasha Kelly Hamilton has solicited cosmopolitan voices from across the state, gathering work from established poets to farmers, retirees, inmates, and more. Starting with single lines of existing poetry, participants have not only crafted their own unique works, but have also shared their poems and insights with each other as a form of connective tissue. Like a tree from many roots, this collection threads together the professional and hobbyist poet, growing new, powerful art from the margins between.

Genres: Poetry

142 pages, Paperback

Published April 22, 2025

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

On first hearing how this collection was organized, I was completely fascinated by the collaborative quality of poetry that Dasha Kelly Hamilton was exploring. The forward explains how this collection was created from the submissions to prompts on A Line Meant website from fifty-nine poets across Wisconsin. Hamilton specifically wanted to include "writers who reside in prison facilities" as a way to empower them and give them a space to express their creativity. This collection is such a beautiful embodiment of how poetry can be collaborative. The most profound takeaway I had was in how this collection highlights the importance of every person, poet, and "neighbor," as Hamilton says, as they give their voice to the world through their poetry.

The poems themselves were absolutely phenomenal. I loved the way that the collection showcased the individuality and creativity of poets responding to the same line or prompt. There are no wrong or right interpretations, there are just poets' voices speaking in unique and striking ways. The poems range in theme from the personal, to the pastoral, to the act of writing itself.

Hamilton also writes a poem at the beginning of each section, created by using individual lines of the poems in the sections. It was fascinating to see how the individual becomes collective through Hamilton's poems.

Overall, this is a collection I highly recommend you read!

[Majella Pinto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dasha Hamilton’s stitching of poetry in A Line Meant, is a celebration. It’s quirky and introspective prompts generating verses of delightful imagination, that tap and transform the mundane experiences of nature and collective memory, etching nuggets of words, make you savor and delight in these pieces and also honor the inclusion of poets at the periphery of society.

[Sidney Joell Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m in this book. I REPEAT IM IN THIS BOOK.

[Sara S · Rating 5 out of 5]

A breathtaking collaboration. Dasha Kelly Hamilton has created a community of poetic inspiration, from small town to big city to prisons, and creativity flowed between them all.

[Miriam Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very cool concept and great execution. Some stellar poems and some meh poems - such is the nature of an anthology. But big ups for Dasha’s collective approach!

[Casie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 rounded up! As any anthology works, I looooved some poems and felt indifferent to others. But I loved the concept and collection overall