Thursday
Jan252007
why I love poetry…in 153 words or less by me {poetry thursday}
Whittling the long list down, as I have been trying to shape my own poems lately, I found this list…
I love poetry because:
it envelopes me in language
it frees me from fear
it gives me the space to grieve
it cracks me open
it swirls thoughts together into truth
it doesn’t put up with bullshit
it can be a wicked dance of memory and fiction
it assaults the senses
it breathes
(visit poetry thursday to read more responses to this assignment and other good things)
tagged 
poetry
poetry
Reader Comments (15)
dear girl,
i wanted to thank you for the way you share about poetry... really...
big time... you have awakened something in me... a realisation that when i was a child, i wanted to be a writer, poet or artist... and somewhere along the line i thought i wasn't a poet...
and today i was sitting in the backyard in the afternoon light, crosslegged, writing in my journal, and i thought of you and poetry and i let the words fly out into the world.
love you. thank you
xoxox
leonie
All excellent reasons to love poetry! I really like that photo.
And it opens doors ! I like that you believe poetry doesn't put up with bullshit; that's a really good one ! BB
it breathes. and in you it lives. and in poetry thursday it thrives. Thank you.
I hardly ever read poetry. But these words make me wanna go out and buy a book full of poetry. Inspiring words, you wrote :)
xo Sophie
I love the bullshit line, too. (Unfortunately, I'm sure a lot of what I write IS bullshit...)
Oh, yes. And it SHOULD breathe! Good job.
YES!
i'm almost afraid to read what everyone else is writing until i get mine done...but i do have an idea that came to me after our phone call last night...a really good idea...
a dance of memeory and fiction.
this i love.
this i relate to.
perfect.
Isn't it funny how most all of us give Poetry anthropomorphic qualities? She is alive isn't she? Feels as we do everything, because she is us. She makes us alive.
Yes, poetry does all these things- thank you, dear Liz. It helped free me from fear, fear of expressing myself genuinely. I am forever grateful...
Liz, you're so right - poetry does assault the senses, frees one from fear, cracks us open and all the other things you've listed. And I want to thank you for starting Poetry Thursday, because without it, I may not have come back to reading poetry, after a long absence. And certainly I might not have been writing poems - I hadn't written a serious one since 1998 until Poetry Thursday came along in 2006. So thank you for hosting this beautiful forum in which we can all share and expand our love of poetry. It has truly been a gift in my life and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. xo
It does all that for me. Thank you for the challenge each week. I am on cloud nine about writing again.
:)
I enjoyed reading your views.
gautami
http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com/2007/01/saluting-poetic-wordsan-experiment.html" REL="nofollow">saluting the poetic words.
http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com/2007/01/why-i-love-poetrypoetry-thursday.html" REL="nofollow">why I love Poetry.
I love your list. It definitely honors the power of poetry. My favorite line:
it can be a wicked dance of memory and fiction
You are absolutely right about that!