World Poetry Day was two weeks ago, but if you ask me, everyday should celebrate poetry.
Poetry is more than just pretty words thrown together on a page. Poetry is a way of capturing emotions and emitting them through a paper medium. I like to think that there is both an art and a science to constructing a poem. You need to do it carefully (science), but freely (art). You need to be thoughtful, but audacious. You need to be patient, but restless.
Poetry is the balance writers find. It’s a place to speak the important things, yet never need everyone understand. Writing poetry can seem intimidating, and you may think you won’t say things the right way. Move past that thinking. Art is art: it’s supposed to be beautiful and messy, at the same time. I’ll be the first to admit that I can’t sing at all. AT ALL. That doesn’t mean I’m not screaming lyrics in my car with the music on blast.
Art is supposed to make you feel something, whether you’re creating it yourself or just enjoying it. This world is all poetry if you’re looking, but not actually looking for it at all.
A friend of mine requested I write another article with quotes & poems. Here are snippets of eight poems to celebrate the poetic souls everywhere:
1. B (If I Should Have a Daughter) – Sarah Kay
When your boots will fill with rain and you’ll be up to your knees in disappointment and those are the very days you have all the more reason to say “thank you.” Because there is nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline no matter how many times it’s sent away.
2. My Honest Poem – Rudy Francisco
Hi, my name is Rudy
I enjoy frozen yogurt, people watching
And laughing for absolutely no reason at all
But I don’t allow myself to cry as often as I need to
I have solar-powered confidence, I have a battery-operated smile
My hobbies include editing my life story, hiding behind metaphors
And trying to convince my shadow that I’m someone worth following.
3. Maybe I Need You – Andrea Gibson
As I sang, maybe I need you
off key
but in tune.
Maybe I need you the way that big moon needs that open sea.
4. When Love Arrives – Sarah Kay & Phil Kaye
[Sarah]
When love arrives say,
[Sarah & Phil]
"Welcome, make yourself comfortable"
[Phil]
If love leaves, ask her to leave the door open behind her
[Sarah]
Turn off the music, listen to the quiet
[Phil]
Whisper,
[Sarah & Phil]
“Thank you for stopping by”
5. Too Hard To Try – Robert M. Drake
It is important to visit
that place inside you.
That place no other human
is allowed to enter
…
Let that be the only thing
you live for
and let it take you back
where you began.
6. Cleo Wade
What I am most grateful
for is all of the
people in my life who called me weird (and
there were a lot).
Because I am weird
and I am proud to
be weird. My weirdness
taught me how to be
strong and be myself.
So if you ask me, I say,
keep it weird and
smile. Life is more
fun when you're a weirdo.
—Cleo Wade
7. Here Am I – Anis Mojgani
Where do people go to when they die?
What made the beauty of the moon?
And the beauty of the sea?
Did that beauty make you?
Did that beauty make me?
Will that make me something?
Will I be something?
Am I something?
And the answer comes: already am, always was, and I still have time to be.
8. somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond – e.e. Cummings
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hand
