On Poetry

“Poetry is when emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.”

-Robert Frost

I’ve always found poetry somewhat pretentious, which in turn made it, to me, uninteresting. Now “pretentious” might have just been a part of the stereotype the art form could sometimes give off. I actually didn’t have anything specific against it. In fact, I thought it was admirable the way poets could find exactly the right words to manipulate the English (and sometimes other) language in a way people could connect to. It’s a little like listening to the lyrics of a song and feeling a part of that message the artist is trying to send. Poetry does that for a lot of people. I guess I just didn’t understand it. Until recently.

A little under a year ago, I took a class on poetry. An intro level class I took just to complete my credits so I could graduate. As many of you know, I am a writer, so I figured a writing class would be my speed. And to be clear this class was half poetry, half prose. I thought, “Well, if I don’t like the poetry as much, I just have to hold out for the prose.” And I wish I could tell you all that I was extremely moved by the poetry section of this class and that this class is what made me decide I wanted to start taking a serious interest in reading and writing poetry. But that would just be a lie. In fact, I sort of coasted through that section–just like I thought I would. I wrote the poetry I was supposed to write and then I moved on. It wasn’t until about a month ago when poetry was reintroduced into my life.

There’s this thing called spoken word poetry where poetry is shared through performance/oral recitation. Stories actually started that way. Before people found a way to write everything down, stories were only shared by word of mouth. Spoken word really goes back to those roots by sharing stories in the simplest way.

I’m not really sure how exactly I fell into this rabbit hole, but one day I just stumbled upon all of this spoken word poetry and I absolutely fell in love. The best way I can describe it is the way some people feel listening to music. I was just so moved by the words and the intonations. I think what I really liked about the concept was the fact that it combined my love of theatre and performance with my love of the written word and how it can move people in so many different ways. So I started looking into it–and looking into trying it.

It’s kind of funny to me how easy it was for me to just write feelings down on the page. Obviously poetry isn’t exactly that easy–if it was more people would do it and be good at it. But it was a hopeful start for me. It’s a hopeful start I’m still riding out. Which is my way of saying, “Yes, I’m writing poetry.” And like I do with all my creative endeavors, I want to share this experience with you. Holds to the blog are things you all aren’t new to (sorry…again) and I don’t know exactly what those are going to look like this time around, but I will keep you updated. I’ve got big plans for this poetry, no matter how it turns out, so make sure to stick around.

How do you guys feel about poetry? Have you read a lot of poetry before or are you new to the craft? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments section below! And make sure to check back for more poetry updates from me–all available on my new “Poetry” tab on the menu!