Yes, Yes, Yes

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.

                   ~Robert Frost

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares many not obliterate the sense of beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.

                  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

                  ~Kahlil Gibran

Me? I think poetry is all those things and more, but high school ruined my enjoyment of it for a long time.  If ideas were conveyed directly with words, then I was fine, but I didn't have the experience or insight to understand all of the layered meanings that the teacher insisted were being shared.  Forget all those literary devices.  Mostly I memorized the poem, including all of the punctuation, and passed the class.

 My friends have introduced me to wonderful poets and poems through books they have given me.  Some include ten poems to set you free by Roger Housden, Rilke's Book of Hours--Love Poems to God, Thirst by Mary Oliver, and She Walks in Beauty--A Woman's Journey Through Poems, selected and introduced by Caroline Kennedy.  I recommend them all.

Right now, I am intentionally reading a poem a day through the Library of Congress' Poetry 180 Project that daily e-mails a poem for American High Schools.  If you're interested, the address is loc@service.govdelivery.com.  Today I received poem 126--one of my very favorite, and I wanted to share it with you.  I encourage you to read different poets--Billy Collins, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Kay Ryan--you may just find the words for what you've been feeling.

  

God Says Yes To Me 

           by Kaylin Haught

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes