Poetry is a way to communicate, to express ourselves, for some the only way to say what they cannot say in person or consciously.  There is much beauty, sadness, loss, soul, joy, anger, surprise, excitement, confusion, secrets, and much more.  When I read someone’s poetry, I feel a sense of who this person is sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes very loudly!  ee cummings is one of my favorite poets, I felt early on that he could express himself in his own unique way, he didn’t follow any traditional structure, he developed his own and I appreciated it, here’s a quote:  “It takes courage to become who you really are.”  One of my favorites:  “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”

Today of course there are many different kinds of poetry with people from many different cultures expressing experiences, feelings, and dreams in rap, Urdu, haiku, and whatever you define as poetry.  I think we all want to be understood and to connect to one another, poetry can be that bridge, like music.  Emily Dickinson is another poet I admire, she rarely left her home, tending the expanse of garden on her family’s grounds.  She communicated in her poetry in what I call ‘flower language’ describing her emotions, feelings, humor in a way that was hidden yet there if you paid attention.  When she wrote letters to people it was this language she used, her own way to say what she couldn’t say in person.  She loved nature and spent her life dedicated to it.