What Poetry Is

Poetry - English 352
September 24th, 2012

What Poetry Is

It’s a vast, deep Ocean.

Rivers of words and emotions flowing in and out
Constantly.
Currents of ideas and people swirling through them, changing them,
Rearranging their shapes into something more familiar,
Comforting.

Centuries of walls stand round the shore,
Constraining:
Ancient attempts of power to withhold and bend knowledge, change it,
To feed it to society in a way which promotes rule,
Corrupting.

The walls are no longer holding the outside world at bay, but simply
Containing
The Sea. It is necessary to search, make an effort, but it is no longer forbidden
To know, to explore. Centuries of words flood it, deepen it,
Creating
Unfathomable, unending currents of evolving words.
Invisible to all but those who leap over the walls. It’s often the
Charismatic,
Those who are open and ready to drink in the words. They are the
Creative.
They will be the first to glean meaning. The Sea welcomes hearts with a steady, crashing song,
Waves of words leading to endless expressions and descriptions,
Caressing
Their ideas with its own grace, its own rhythm. Never quite
Changing
The words it contains, but allowing them to be bent to the will of new minds .
Though the words, the emotions, have been infinitely used and worn down, they are
Continuing:
Though the meanings differ and change, they continue to
Captivate
The minds of the brilliant and the simple, the proud and the humble.
The images contained by each simple creature in the sea, each simple word, vividly
Connect
Hearts to memories and experiences, objects and questions.

The countless mesmerizing rhythms of the ocean lead millions to
Contemplate
The advancing years, to wonder what might lie beyond what is now,
The meanings of what the secluded cees might be… To wonder if they might ever be
Complete.
Whatever poetry is, it is what it wants to be.
There are so many other letters,
Many more appropriate than the cees in the Sea.