Poetry

I've only written one short poem in my life, back in seventh grade, and it was published in a little school booklet. The line that was pretty good was a reference to that first tree that turns red in the fall, "the first tree to turn into September." But since then, the poetry muse has never grabbed me. 

Recently, a friend said there was something poetic about my writing here in these essays. I was so appreciative of her words, and yet a bit baffled. I think of what I am writing as prose.

Yet these words of Audre Lord, from the essay "Poetry is Not a Luxury," have helped me reframe things a bit: "The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives. It is within this light that we form those ideas by which we pursue our magic and make it realized. This is poetry as illumination, for it is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are -- until the poem -- nameless and formless, about to be birthed, but already felt...For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence."

Perhaps poetry is less about form than it is about intention. From that perspective, yes, this blog is my attempt to shine a certain spectrum of light upon my life and my path, to try to "realize my magic." Lord's beautiful words may take months for me to fully breathe in, but they have already inspired.