Tuesday, February 26, 2013
What is Poetry?
We have all at one time or another read, written, heard, or otherwise been subjected to poetry in one form or another. Poetry is all around us in many different forms. We use it to describe love & hate, joy & pain, an outlet for our deepest most sacred thoughts & desires. But why is this? Why are we drawn to this form of expression? What exactly is poetry and why does it reach us on a different level than other forms of expression? I implore each of you reading this to search your heart, mind and soul and comment here your thoughts. Answer each of the questions asked above with YOUR answers. Don't give definitions, don't assume what others my be thinking, answer what it is to YOU. After we get through this first part about what & why, the next section we will be posting some of our favorite poems and giving a description on what it means to us, why it reached out to us, and how we perceive the writing. I look forward to reading and discussing each of your answers and moving forward with this discussion.
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Hmm. Let's try this again. Hopefully this time the comment will actually show up :)
ReplyDeletePoetry, like music, can be a very personal thing. Poetry is great way of getting emotions and feelings out without always coming out right and saying it. I haven't really thought about poetry since high school. I use to write poetry a lot during my dark period. It was a type of release. It was how I expressed all the feelings I had bottled up inside me during high school. The good thing about poetry is that different people can pull what they need from a poem. We could read the same poem and get 2 completely different things from it. It can reach us where we're at. Also, the same poem can mean different things depending on where you are emotionally at the time. Poetry is a good way of getting overwhelming emotions out. And there will always be someone that your poem touches in some way they needed. Most of the ones I wrote in high school probably scared the crap out those that read it but at the same time probably where able to get something out of it other than my wish for death. Poetry has a way of reaching deep in someone and touching parts/emotions they might be trying to cover up. Or it gives them something to relate to. To know that they are not the only ones expericing those feelings.
Thank you Trista for sharing. I couldn't agree more with you. Poetry is truly in the eye of the beholder. We can each read the same poem and pull different meanings out of it depending on our views, circumstance, emotional situation, etc. Where we are at at a certain point in our lives can have a profound impact on how we perceive the meaning of poetry. I have written poetry for many years and depending on what was going on in my life at the time shaped the words that I wrote. Yet even though I was using poetry to express my own pent up emotions another reading what I had written could take something totally different out of it. One of the great things about poetry to me, like you said, is that we can each each extract what we need at the time from a poem and let it touch our life in such a way that it can heal us, comfort us or just give us the feeling that someone somewhere understands us and we are not alone. There have been times in my life that a poem or poems have impacted my life so profoundly that it redirected my life, set my life back on a course heading true north when I felt all was lost. The ability to be able to sit down and express my thoughts, my pain, through poetry has truly saved my life at times. Spoken word is grand and can be healing, however, it can be forgotten, jumbled, or just plain lost in translation; but written word is forever. It is a visual representation of the feelings and emotions buried within one's very soul.
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