It's Not Falling, It's Landing

You know how on television, the stereotype of a therapist is that they'll show you ink blots and you have to say the first word that pops into your head? I feel like that wouldn't help anyone with a therapeutic need. My point isn't actually directly related to therapists. It's about poetry, so maybe I'll try to be a poetry therapist...? Here goes: When you hear the word poetry, what do you automatically think of? Many people I know would probably say "boring" or "tough to analyze" (yes, you, my AP Lit-ers). When I think of poetry, I don't think of a single word. I think of a line, from a book (and movie, I guess). "I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!" To which Mr. Darcy responds, "I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love." "Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Every thing nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.'' Again, this quotation has nothing to do with this poetry post, yet I wanted to add it anyway. Pride and Prejudice is probably my favorite novel of all time, which is why I've read it maybe ten times. Anyway, poetry. I used to think of poetry as two stanzas with an ABAB rhyme scheme, Dr. Seuss style. However, after being in Ety for almost nine weeks, my views on poetry have been opened to many different kinds of poems. There doesn't have to be a rhyme scheme, not everyone has to understand it and it doesn't even need to have a concrete meaning. Poetry can be anything you want. It can be rough, harsh, abstract or poetic, musical, lilting. I was reading a collection of poetry about love, Falling Hard, the other day and they were all different, written by people ages 12 to 18, girls and boys, from all over the world. The different styles of the poems made me appreciate how versatile poetry can be and actually made me start to like it again (thanks, 7th grade English teacher, for ruining poetry for me in the first place). I think my favorite thing about poetry, that I've only just now learned, is that there are no right or wrong answers. All poems are up for interpretation. Poetry can be whatever you want.

"Are you ready to dive in?
It's not falling, it's landing."