Why read, and sometimes even write poetry? That question is not difficult to answer if we change the word poetry to songs.
I sing when I feel good. When I sing my favourite songs, I feel even better. Sometimes when I am listening to music and to the song words, I feel that it was written for me. A good song always makes me feel something. There are songs that I sing in my head between classes and songs that I want to sing when the school bell rings by the end of the day. They help me get through the day.
They are like bright and warm colours in the middle of greys and shades. I like songs about love and friendship. The extraordinary thing is, my feelings are more special when I sing my favourite songs in English.
I also like reading. I used to avoid poetry until an e-pal told me I should recite poems and not look up the meaning of the words. Poetry uses many difficult words and idioms, but the best thing is to just forget about them. In the beginning I felt quite strange. Now I always lock the door. Reading aloud gives you a strange feeling, but when you have some practice and fall into the rhythm, the rhyme and the sounds of the words, it is really a special experience.
I started with small poems, but now I think I most like long poems. I have different feelings with different poems. When I have had a bad day at school, I read Keats and forget everything. When I am sad I read Wordsworth by the light of a candle. When the poem is finished, I close the book and my sadness is gone.
DUST OF SNOW
The way a crow Has given my heart
Shook down on me A change of mood
The dust of snow And saved some part
From a hemlock tree Of a day I had rued.
By Robert Frost
RIGHT HERE WAITING
Oceans apart, day after day, How can I say forever?
And I slowly go insane. Wherever you go, whatever you do
I hear your voice on the line, I will be right here waiting for you.
But it doesn't stop the pain. Whatever it takes, or how my heart breaks
If I see you next to never, I will be right here waiting for you.
By Richard Marx |