Sense-making through poetry

From May 5, 2020 to June 26, 2020, I wrote poems against news articles. Every day, I wrote at least one poem. I religiously sat under an old Elderberry tree in our backyard, reading news about what was happening in America, and in the world. Then I spent hours writing one poem from the articles I read. I wrote about murders, freedom marches, pandemic where doctors and patients discussed death over Zoom, data leaks, a corrupt political administration attacking transgender rights, and many more.

It was the time when the world was literally burning. My heart was burning too. I started to physically feel as if the top of my head was going to come off. Then, I remembered Emily Dickinson -- “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”

Poetry.

I have always found poetry to be a natural outcome of an expressive state of mind. I had never attempted to write poems against prompts, such as news articles. But what better way to understand the complex world than poetry? I have often sought poems to heal my heart and here was an opportunity to write poetry whose sole purpose was personal healing.

I am not a purist when it comes to poems. I think everyone in the world should read and write poems. Anything that fulfills a deep purpose can be poetry. This is important to understand. Too often, the biggest barrier to poetry is the formality of verse. A single right word on a page can be a poem if it invokes the right feeling.

You just have to do it.

Then, you heal.

For example, when the Georgia primary was blighted by long lines and voting machine failures, I felt democracy shouldn’t be this hard. I wrote a short verse, which felt perfect in its economy and precision --

Ask democracy what it wants

and it will tell you —

A plain easy way to vote.

Poetry is words and sounds. It is economy, opportunity and precision. It is also a state of mind. It’s like a kaleidoscopic mirror which reflects our thoughts in interesting patterns. For example, when I was reading about the endless deliberations on police budgets and political bickering preventing us from doing what we are supposed to, I challenged myself to step into a politician’s shoes and write something that is both humorous and serious in tone.

After much consideration
and a lot of deliberation
our ideas don’t move the nation.
Our consideration should be
a cause for your celebration
all we care today is a conversation
around how we care for reformation.
While we play with your imagination,
we try to quell your frustration
with our bullshitation.

Actions matter.

There are many more like this; every poem capturing, current state of mind. You can read these poems on my website under the anthology America in Verse.