246. Poetry

I love poetry. I write poetry almost every day and I read it every day. I have favorite poets that I find intriguing, probably as much for what they write about as much as how they write. My examples of that are Robert Frost and Sylvia Plath and Richard Blanco. But I also like poets who change up the form and make me think differently about how you can write poetry. My examples of this are E. E. Cummmings, William Shakespeare and William Wordsworth.

I like how poetry is singing for people who can’t necessarily carry a tune. And yes, it’s also for those who sing extremely well because music is also poetry if it has lyrics.  I like the rhythms and rhymes of poetry. I like how a poem makes you see things more clearly or how it makes you think something you understood very well seem complicated and beyond your comprehension. I like how so many people think poetry is frivolous and a waste of time while, in truth, it is a way of being very present and in tune with yourself and the world. love how the images in poetry thrust you almost instantaneously to another time or another place. I like how the images can seem benign and yet the rhythms slowly pound it into you so that you can’t forget it. All those ear worms can totally make or ruin your day. That is the power of poetry and anyone who discounts poetry ignores the fact that they probably eat Lays potato chips because they couldn’t eat just one (poetry is in advertising). Saying poetry is frivolous is saying language is frivolous and that is as much a lie as saying sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never hurt you. Of course words can hurt you. The laws of the land are words and they have more force than a thousand freight trains. Poetry is all that. Poetry is power.

I’m not on some power trip, I’m just in love with how words control so much of our lives and the poetry I love is the poetry that propels me to live. I love poetry.