Poetry...

“Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.” ~Thomas Gray

I have always enjoyed poetry. It has always been a form of self expression for me. When I faced the many difficulties of my adolescence and teenage years, poetry was there for me; drawing the very thoughts right out of me and allowing me to revisit them over and over again. Poetry validated my pain and later, my love. I wrote love poems to my future husband which he thought were awkward and foreign but for me, reading the words on the page meant my love was real.

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.” ~Unknown

In poetry, to “show” someone your poetry is to give them a window to your soul and allow them to observe, question, and make conclusions. To “tell” someone everything about your poem; how to feel, what to see, or what to think; is to rob them of the biotic relationship between poet, poem, and reader.

“Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out.... Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.” ~A.E. Housman

Understanding the vast color palette of words is crucial to analyzing poetry. It is important to first read a poem for face value and then just as important to read it again, this time savoring each word, line, and stanza. When we are able to able to draw meaning from the words, we give them life but if we dig too deep, we lose the breathtaking panorama of the poem.