Sunday, March 20, 2011

Day 79, March 20

I love poetry. I love the juxtaposition of words, syllables, sounds, that, woven together, create beauty. I love the different forms of poetry--the strict meter of the sonnet, the simplicity of the haiku, the structure of the cinquain.

Poetry, however, involves much more than simply meter, rhyme, line length, and shape of stanza. Imagery, symbology, connotations, even empty spaces go to making a poem meaningful and memorable. Repetition, contrast, and sequence combine to take mere words and turn them into a masterpiece.

A poem, if it is good, will reach inside you, touch your heart, and forever change it. It will speak to you in ways that are unique to you, thus giving every poem an infinite number of lives through its readers.

"There are three things, after all, that a poem must reach: the eye, the ear, and what we may call the heart or the mind. It is most important of all to reach the heart of the reader."
--Robert Frost

So, for today, I am grateful for the beauty of poetry.

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