Poetry speaks to our soul in a way that prose does not.  Poems can be good medicine for the soul.  Poet Phyllis Cole Dai has written that “eating one poem can save you if you’re hungry enough”.  Poet Muriel Rukeyser says “The invitation to poetry is to bring your whole life to this moment.”   Here you will find poems of mine as well as from others.  I suggest that you choose a poem to live with for a week or so.  Read it over and over, learn it by heart, share it with others.  The US poet laureate, Billy Collins, once said that everyone should write a poem once a day.  That invitation started me on a journey of writing my own poetry.  Why not give it a try?  Here you will find poems that have meant something to me, poems that I have learned by heart or written by heart.  Here is a poem of mine about how to read a poem.
 

How to Read A Poem

Let it find

the cracks in you.

Let it flow into the dry

riverbed of what is parched

in your life.  Let it purr

into your deaf ear.

Let the poem threaten

some of your cherished

righteousness.

Get mad at it.  Realize

it gives you indigestion

at the same time

it shines a light

on a corner of you

that you swept under the rug.

Take it out dancing.

Let it sing to you.

Dare to show it your tears.

But don’t hold it

close to your chest.

Copy it.  Say it.

Give it to friends.

Hide it in bushes.

Put it in the folds

of your mother’s apron.

Let it take wings

in someone else’s life too.

But first,

learn it  by heart

so you can have it

forever.

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