Poetry is a form of writing that’s either loved or hated. Some find it to be a romantic escape, while others see it as over-dramatic and cheesy.
I’ve been writing poetry since middle school. I vividly remember my sixth-grade English teacher handing each of us a notebook and saying, “Write whatever you want, I don’t care what it is, just write,” and he never looked at the notebook, unless we wanted him to. This started my passion for writing. I’d never known that so much freedom could be found on a page.
Since then, I’ve written poetry casually. Whenever I had an experience of heightened emotion or intense observation about something, I’d take out my pen and begin to write a flurry of verses. This Spring semester, however, I decided I wanted to improve my craft, so I enrolled in a poetic techniques course. Now, poetry has become something so completely different in my life.
a form of self-discovery
After writing a few poems for the class, I found that, in my writing, I often remained abstract. I avoided being specific about my life or my experiences because I didn’t want to dig that deep. I didn’t have the time to reflect on that either. As a college student, my whole existence is based on moving to the next thing. The next class, the next grade, the next internship, award, and so on. I often find it hard to slow down.
This lifestyle caused me to live on autopilot, and I hadn’t even realized it. Moving through my days, waking up, and then suddenly being in bed again. I processed my existence at a surface level, never having the energy or time to think deeper.
As I began writing more poetry for my class, I noticed that I couldn’t express what I wanted on the page if I continued to process life this way. More specifically, if I didn’t notice details within my life, and instead looked at it from an abstract point of view, I’d stay in a cycle of living my life distracted.
looking at the world through a new lens
In hopes of improving my writing, I began to go on walks. This forced me to take a second and look around. See what of nature could inspire me, what little things I was missing. This also gave me the opportunity to have time with myself and process my day.
From this new habit, I began to write more and more. I decided to keep doing things that led me to notice. I started writing about flowers growing out of the concrete, or the first warm day of the semester. The little things that seemed so insignificant began to shift into what made the everyday so beautiful. I realized I’d begun to experience life more.
In the essay “How to Breathe With the Trees,” Margaret Renkl explains a quote by Ada Limón stating, “each line break, each stanza break, and each caesura represents a pause, and in that pause there is room to take a breath. To ponder.” These words reflect what writing and reading poetry have done in my life. It’s taught me to breathe and shown me there’s time to pause.
Throughout simple tasks in my day, I now think of lines in my head for my next poem. Whether it’s grabbing coffee with a friend or the breeze outside, I’ve become more grateful for the mundane and the daily. My poetry has forced me to take a new approach to life. An approach that isn’t looking for the next task but focusing on the moment in front of me.
emotional expression
My increased writing forced me to process my emotions, rather than avoid them. It’s so easy to drown ourselves in our phones or schoolwork to avoid our feelings, but poetry gave me an outlet to express them. Through this, I’ve become more self-aware. In turn, I’ve been more eager to experience life and have a deeper desire to write about it.
If I wanted to write, I had to look, see, feel, and think about things I typically never would have. To find new metaphors, I had to see how some parts of life intertwine with others. To grow my language, I had to notice what the people around me were saying. I had to be the one operating the plane.
Sylvia Plath states that “poems are moments monuments.” Writing poetry has made me live in each moment because there’s always something to find. Without this craft that caused me to look deeper into myself, I may have never taken a moment to look up and see the world moving around me. I encourage everyone to find something that makes them want to actually live life, rather than just experience it.
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