I don't write poetry. I have often wished that I did. I can remember walking my daughters home from school many years ago and watching my eldest running ahead of me, her blonde hair swooshing back and forth as she raced ahead, happy, excited, joyful. And I wished I could capture that moment in a way that truly reflected the power of it.
But I don't write poetry. So I didn't.
I think part of my hesitation about writing poetry stems from not being entirely sure what makes a poem a poem. A book, a short story, a screenplay, these are all things that have clear definitions. (Not that I've ever written a screenplay, but I do know what one is.)
But what is a poem?
Whenever I have decided to write poetry in the past, I always made sure that it rhymed. That was one clear way I could see it was a poem. But those poems that didn't rhyme? What makes those poems?
Yesterday, however, I found myself with no choice in the matter. I saw a flag at half-mast and suddenly I felt all the things. It overwhelmed me, and it insisted on settling into my brain and my heart and not letting go. So I wrote it down on paper. I let the emotions flow out of me into this one little poem. This little poem that doesn't rhyme. This little poem that is emotion in words.
I feel more at peace now I've given those feelings an outlet. It never occurred to me that writing a poem would affect how I felt after I had written it. A poem was something that a person made. Not a thing that happened to a person.
Except this was a poem that happened to me. And I'm so glad it did.