Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Poem

Poetry should... should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance. ~John Keats

I've had an obsession with poetry as long as I can remember.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been pouring over old, leather-bound volumes, lost in the elegance of the poetic word.

I don't know why the deep and extremely graceful words of poetry have caught my heart the way they have since my youth. It's not something I can really explain, any more than I can explain my love of chocolate or horse-hair paintbrushes.

Maybe it's the openness.

Poetry has an intimacy that prose simply cannot touch.

A strange sort of melodic power unlike any other written form.

It's curious, really.

Prose, the telling of story or the recording of facts in a narrative fashion...it has a magic all its own. But poetry...the incredible flow from line to line, the whisper of thoughts and dreams once hidden, now laid bare.

Both are magic. Both are intimate.

But only one

Can break the rules,

Change the game

And still hypnotize

The soul.

The smell of ink is intoxicating to me - others may have wine, but I have poetry. ~Terri Guillemets

3 comments:

  1. me too. I keep all mine on poemhunter.com. Ive been writing for about 4-5 years. have 153 right now :) fan of John Milton, Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe and a few others

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  2. Poetry, unlike prose, focuses on a moment, almost stationary in time, without any forward movement, letting the reader dwell and reflect in a powerful way. every detail and word has been labored over, to capture that moment in time perfectly.. it's wonderful.

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  3. The problem with poetry is that you have to be good at words! Now that is not a problem for you, Rachel! But for your daddy, that is a different story (or poem). Best I can say is that I can rhyme!

    Love

    Daddy

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I look at you and see all the ways a soul can bruise, and I wish I could sink my hands into your flesh and light lanterns along your spine so you know there's nothing but light when I see you. :: Shinji Moon