poetry is…?
What is poetry? (from the getlit curriculum by Diane ruby lane)
What is Poetry? Poetry is quite simply the language of the soul. It is the way we express the inexpressible, the sublime. It is the truth escaping from our kneecaps and eyes and fingers, bursting out of our pores and our pens. It is THE TRUTH without filter or interference of mind, society, rightfulness, appropriateness, etc . . . It is what we feel and never say. It is the feelings we had as children before we tucked those feelings away. It is who we were before our first hurt and who we’ve become since. It is what’s placed on the porous paper. It is our innermost selves, without judgment. It is the friend we never thought we’d have. It is truth before grammar and structure and school. It is also the cultivated stream after grammar and structure and school. It is learning to take that wild, natural earthquake inside and to shape it and share it—through precision, thought, and skill. It is a means to communicate secrets of the soul with others—a new language, a new way to bring what’s wild into the world. That is the work.
And poetry is everywhere! It is the lines printed on coffee mugs; the sing-song, melodic chants of the playground, the poignant prayers of childhood, the song that makes us stop what we’re doing and listen.
And poetry is everywhere! It is the lines printed on coffee mugs; the sing-song, melodic chants of the playground, the poignant prayers of childhood, the song that makes us stop what we’re doing and listen.
