by Nellie Curtiss …
Have you written a poem lately? Did you know that April is National Poetry Month?
Poetry does not always have to rhyme or use punctuation like a grammarian, nor does it have to have a specific cadence (beat), nor does it have to use onomatopoeia (sounds that imitate the word itself). Poems can be narrative, or much like a Pepsi or Coke jingle. Sometimes poems are serious; then others are downright silly.
I’ve noticed that poems are like people—tall, short, and in-between. They can be reserved like my early first grade teacher Mrs. Eagle who had bobbed white hair and often wore a storybook yellow dress speckled with black dots and whose feet were properly dressed in thick black shoes. A poem like TS Eliot’s The Wasteland (poetryfoundation.org/poems/47311/the-waste-land) can be epic and startling much like learning a Colorado farmer once road with Poncho Villa.
Poems can spring out of prisoners like Sir Walter Raleigh, Nelson Mandela, or Pussy Riot (a Russian protest band). Poems can track like an extravert or quietly emerge like an introvert (see poems by Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath, or Emily Dickinson). Poems can paint a picture, write a script, and look like a nod from the ode. Their subjects can be death, life, cruelty, sweetness, thunderstorms in the city or photographs on a page (see poems by Pablo Neruda, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Elsa Cross, Daisy Zamora or Aaron Abeyta at aaronabeytapoet.com).
The poem on the tip of your tongue could also be the poem you discover while writing an email to a friend, a blog about the harm weed burns bring to lungs or a rebuke of the garden’s misbegotten Hollyhocks.
A poem can be scratched out on a stained paper napkin, hatched on a Facebook post, or called out on stage while battling the three hags in the foggy moor. A poem can speak with a motherly tone, or a father’s belt; it can light up one’s psyche or hide intentions in words.
Never mind that you haven’t taken a writing class or literature class; if you write it, the words will come; and if you announce what it is, then it becomes your poem. After all, a poet can be disguised as a banker, teacher, prisoner, plumber, mother, babysitter, mathematician, doctor, lawyer, technician, cultural icon, vintage model, screen actor, rancher, casino manager, piano tuner, UPS driver or an iPad toting grade-schooler.
Writing poems can open new doors for the spirit and release angst or highlight love. So just remember that in the creating of poems comes the wise reins of experience.
So, write your poem, speak it out loud, mail it to a companion, post to friends on Facebook and tweet it on Twitter.
— Nellie Curtiss is a retired college educator and long-time local columnist. Reach her at columnsbynellie.com or email her at columnsbynellie@gmail.com
Cutline for picture: Colored pencil sketch Titled “aaron abeyta poet” by Nelda Curtiss, 2023.
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