Poetry!

I have, as long as I can remember, always loved poetry.  My grandmother used to watch me quite often when I was a child and she would always recite poetry.  Till this day I can recite those same poems she used to (and still does) recite to me. In fact, I recite them to my daughter. So, you could say poetry feels like home to me; it reminds me of my childhood and of my family that is now far away.

But poetry is not just a reminder of childhood for me. I absolutely enjoy poetry. I like reading it and I like writing it. Poetry is an outward flow of feelings and opinions. It is a tangible piece of the author’s soul. When I read poetry, I can hear the author’s most personal feelings and thoughts. Yes, the author is communicating something to the reader, but also to themselves.  To write poetry, you have to be honest with yourself because if you don’t it sounds forced, dead, static.

Poetry is a conduit for passion, denouncement, sadness, joy, confusion, regret, anger, desire… It is your voice; an interactive monologue with the reader. The reader isn’t responding in the poem but is reacting when reading the poem. And because poems are the writer’s inner thoughts, the reader feels safe reacting to those thoughts.

Poetry to me is the most intimate and honest literary presence there is. I feel free to write what I really feel as a poem, and I feel free to react how I want to when I read poetry.