I started writing poetry when I was in middle school; before that, I was a short story writer, a world builder, but I found that what I was experiencing I couldn’t put into short stories. A more compact, succinct form was needed. Poetry allowed me to play. It also allowed me to express myself in creative but succinct ways. I found that people didn’t always have time to read one of my short stories, but I thought they could find time to read my poetry. Ironically, that didn’t happen either. But the trauma of my childhood haunts those poems, which I still have, and the darkness is inescapable. So, while poetry was a form of escape for me, it was also a way to say what I couldn’t speak out loud.
There are so many other reasons why I love poetry. There’s an ability poets have, to put complex feelings and events into a compact text. It’s the language of poetry—the use of metaphors and similes, the wordplay and alliteration (playing with word meaning and sounds), and choice of diction—that I love. You can “chew” on the words of a poem, savor them, let them melt in your mouth. In such a small space, some poems can transport you to a memory that you’d forgotten. A poet’s voice is unique (not that other writers’ voices aren’t). There is an introspection, a self-expression, to a poet’s voice that, I believe, is special to the form. Reading Emily Dickinson, we’re transported to her time, in verse. Reading Langston Hughes, we get a glimpse into the struggle of being American black in the early twentieth century. Reading Gloria Anzaldúa, we understand the importance of being one’s true self and questioning the status quo.
There’s such a variety of forms and tones that I think almost anyone can write poetry. A mechanical engineer could write a poem that, on its face, seems very technical, but that expresses deep emotion; a child could write a poem about her day; a woman could write a series of poems about what she sees in her room; and, like my grandmother, a poet could write in rhyme about what defines them.
Poetry can be akin to journaling: you can do it while sitting on the bus, while in the airport, in the evening after the children are asleep….
You can write poetry on anything, like on scraps of paper, on the back of receipts, on toilet stalls (though most of those that I’ve seen have been limericks haha), in text messages, et al.
In the best cases, poetry is a way we connect ourselves to our realities and to other humans. As Professor Joshua Bennett writes, “Poems provide an occasion for us to talk with one another, creating a shared monument we can carry into the future, establishing a rolling record of our heroes, our planet, our kin. This art form keeps what we love from disappearing.”
As I conclude, I ask: why do you love poetry? What keeps you coming back to poetry?
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I leave you with what I’m reading this week (because to hone your craft, and if you love it, you have to read it):
- “Why So Many MIT Students Are Writing Poetry” by Joshua Bennet, in The Atlantic
- Home Body by Rupi Kaur
- The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom by Felicia Rose Chavez
Please see my “upcoming events” to sign up for at least one of my writing workshops this September, and perhaps, we can talk about why YOU love poetry!