In this way I am an outfielder, mobilized on the balls of his feet, crouched, glove hand and free hand never far apart, poised for the seed of poetry to head my way following the sharp crack of wood at the plate.
Category Archive: THE POWER OF POETRY
Poetry has spread itself thick throughout my life much like this mint. I’ll write a line, put it in my pocket, roll it around a bit, and then hours or days or months later, it’ll have rooted itself and grown into something.
The landscape intensified into a fever dream of hail and sun, deep woods, shadows on the sea and boomeranging, shrieking swifts in the sky. I was watching Six Feet Under…[and] listening to PJ Harvey.
Today, writing this in a parking lot while my son gets ready for a hockey game, I have the word “miracle” stuck in my throat. But, poetry is not the miracle. Life is. And poetry has allowed me to embrace that.
For me, writing evolved into a way to better comprehend, articulate and even reshape the world. Now the work that excites me is writing that is exploratory
It is how both can have their salvations split in two in a single process. I think it was Jericho Brown that said: “Poetry has its own language”. Nothing can be truer in my opinion.
The whole time, I thought I was alone. But there were people just as pained and confused as I was. I found my community. I found my church. I kept returning every Sunday, sharing work I had written during the week.
Yes, I’m a poet and proud of it, and I don’t think I’ll ever want to be anything else. It’s what I would have said in answer to that old chestnut, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Wow! How many people actually get to have their dreams come true?
Some poems will remain within the confines of the therapist’s office. Some poems will never be known to anyone other than myself. Some poems I share with the world.
The power of poetry, then, is its ability to show us ordinary things in an extraordinary light.
I believe the intensity of a poem, the dense nature of a line, the possibilities of syntax, and all aspects that make up a poem work together to become a fitting medium for tragedy.
I don’t only want people to be entertained, but also for them to feel something. And the fastest way to do that is through poetry; you are framing a feeling and passing it on, even if it’s only for a brief moment.
Poetry is the real game of exposure. Really great poetry shows holes, the smallness, the seeking. We seek a connection to others that comes often from exposing moments on a page that you might be most embarrassed to put down on paper.
If done well, a poem can be far more powerful than a photograph, because you are capturing not just the image, but the emotional context and resonance of that thing.
I saw poetry as much more complex and rewarding than I had originally thought it would be over the years. Poetry is the one form that can take the readers to another level of meaning and power.
POWER OF POETRY #35: “Facts/Dreams” – Matthew Mayfield: “….I strive to be that ONE person who keeps you closer to Life and one step away from the trigger.”
I am trying to write poems that stand inside of uncertainty and still find things to praise. And I don’t think it matters if I praise my sore legs that keep walking me home from work each night, or if I praise the relief of night rain in my first Carolinian July, or if I praise an idea of a home I miss, or if I praise the mild infection in my right nipple for not being cancer, or if I praise my friend who has stomach cancer but keeps living beyond the rational limits doctors have suggested—it is all praising living. It is all beholding the terrible beautiful uncertainty of being human and saying thank you. I don’t think there’s anything more beautiful than gratitude, and poetry helps me to access it.
THE POWER OF POETRY – Amy Saul-Zerby In order to explain the power of poetry to […]
LEE ANN RORIPAUGH – SOUTH DAKOTA’S POET LAUREATE Poetry is the shape-shifting ouroboros of language, image, sound, form, […]
The Power of Poetry – Sara Henning I’d like to tell you a story about life’s untamable […]
Two years ago, as part of my hometown’s annual literary festival, I competed in a teen poetry […]
THE POWER OF POETRY — A.M. O’Malley I first found poetry when I was nine years old in […]
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Poetry, like any art, is about connection, either to our inner-self or to another being. In the darkest […]
The Power of Poetry: Revenge of the NerdsBack in the day when I was still a fledgling emcee […]
The Power of Poetry – Donney Rose I came into poetry in a way that […]
I self-published a book of poems when I was 19. Print-on-demand websites like Lulu were just beginning to […]
I have test anxiety and I feel like I am being tested most of the time. When […]
Faith is found here, not in a destiny raiding and parceling out knowledge and the earth, but […]
“The Power of Poetry: I Want to Keep Happening” Sarah Xerta I’m hesitant to write about the […]
THE POWER OF POETRY – Ronnie K. Stephens There is no origin story, here. No single point on […]
Photo Courtesy of Conrad Erb, LiveConnections “I Used to Hate Poetry” — Denice Frohman For many poets and […]
The Power of Poetry Last week I was sitting in a classroom at Lesley University, listening to […]
THE POWER OF POETRY: THE VINEYARD OWNER — Lewis Mundt I. Let me tell you two stories. The […]
Outside The Narrow Garden — Paulie Lipman On an episode of “The Green Room With Paul […]
“BRAVE NEW VOICES” — KHARY JACKSON I am writing this while at the annual Brave New Voices poetry […]
The Power of Poetry as Catharsis and Healing — SaraEve Fermin The brain is a muscle that can move […]
The Poetry of a Perfect Cocktail – Sam Slaughter I’ve never been a poet. The closest I’ve come—“songs” […]
Poems are magic spells written by witches. Ten years ago I had a dream that the Icelandic musician […]
You Talk Too Much – Cristopher Gibson “CRISTOPHER!” Is what I recall most about school, the […]
Poetry Speaks For Itself (except it can’t actually speak at all) —- Taylor Mali Deconstructing the difference between […]
Power of Grief – Kieran Collier I. My mother passed when I was 14. I […]
The Power of Poetry – Duncan Shields Poetry uses language to surpass language. That is the central thought […]
WHAT POETRY MEANS TO ME – CLEMENTINE von RADICS What Poetry Means To […]
The Poet is the Amplifier of Longing – John Ebersole Every poem I write is written by […]
The Super Powers of Poetry – Jessica Helen Lopez Listen here. When I write poetry I take on […]
THE POWER OF POETRY By Blythe Baird The first time I was exposed to spoken word poetry, […]
A Pond, a Stick I just finished grading final portfolios for two of my poetry courses, here […]
The Power of Poetry Tongo Eisen-Martin Poetry does as much as the reader is ready for. Does […]
The Transformative Power of Poetry – Ethan Smith On language When I first started writing intentionally for poetry […]
“The Power of Poetry” by JENNY DRAI 1. I remember the poem that made me want to […]
“Power of Poetry” by EBONY STEWART I remember being eight or nine when my parents finally […]
The first time I remember hearing the word “poetry” it came from a family member who was […]
Eight years ago, in November of 2005, I shared the stage at the old Bowery Poetry Club with […]
As my first contribution to this blog, I thought I should aim high and try to answer the […]
Taylor Mali is one of the best known poets of the last decade. He’s been a part of […]