The Poetry Within Us

Come walk with me over and through the waves of a long forgotten dream.

 I look to the horizon as I look to your eyes, placing all of my dreams into the dazzling light that is beheld there.

As poets, we do not write to satisfy or please others, nor do we seek their approval. We write as a way to get our emotions out, to put our thoughts to paper...to make a part of us that is unseen as something tangible in this world. To leave a small piece of us behind for whoever finds it. Sometimes we write to let an inner emotion escape. To let go of pent up feelings that are causing us great harm. Other times we write from inspiration, perhaps from an observation of beauty that we felt should be described. We might write from an experience that we went through or maybe, even from a source that we can't identify. The words just flow freely into our minds.

There is no greater gift to a poet than to be told by a person that your work has touched them. That it describes exactly how they are feeling at that precise moment, or that it matches an experience or situation they are going through at that point in their lives. For someone to tell you that it has given words to a feeling that they were unable to express themselves. When such a gift is given, it means that as a poet, your art is not only affecting your life, it is affecting someone in the world as well. There is no monetary compensation that can ever amount to that. It's something freely given, and that, my friends, is a most special gift indeed.

So I say, write until your hands cannot bare to hold a pen to paper or the words no longer flow freely. Write without worry of whether anyone else finds it good or not. Let your words whisk you away to another place and time. Have no concern of those around you who might disapprove. In the end, poets write for themselves, and the rest is of little concern. Someday, perhaps one day, you might just touch someone in that special way. Until then......glorious writing!