If you had told me when I undertook this journey that I would see myself as a poet and choose poetry for my second portfolio I would have laughed in your face and said 'tell 'em they're dreaming'. But here I am, a volume into poetry — when in week one of my literature diploma I had forgotten what a stanza was.
Now don't get me wrong — I don't like math in my poetry (iambic pentameter can go jump...) and there are some forms — sonnets for example given the aforementioned — I struggle with.
Below is a poem I wrote about poetry and I feel it sums it up.
About poetry
It enters your soul
Beginning and ending
at the fingertips
It is a maddening pest
shifting emotion
invites and excites
moving bending
shifting shaping
unspoken
exhilarating words
But what is it that I love about poetry? I feel it can go deeper than prose but in a more succinct way. I find I can sort through my emotions, capture my hope, anger, and disappointment in a way that feels safe, and productive. I've processed some pretty big emotions through my poetry (and no, those ones you are not going to see) and I really think that poetry is therapy. I have met so many poets now on this journey and in reading their work, I can see the processing of emotion — or the way beauty can be captured in such a unique way.
The key to poetry, in my opinion, is to view it like a painting. The first draft is the base coat of paint, with each revision adding down another layer of beauty. Not everyone is going to get it, not everyone is going to find it beautiful, but what matters is that you do, and you write for you. And trust the process, the more you write, the better and stronger it will become. Lean into the fear, hesitation and worry with poetry and like a beautiful flower, it will open up for you.