You're a poet and you don't know it

When we were children most of us memorized nursery rhymes and enjoyed rhyming games. I'll bet many of us owned a copy of A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES. Somewhere along the way though many of us decided we didn't like poetry. It was probably when some boring, stuffy teacher tried to convince us of the beauty of some flowery, treacly poetry that had no relation to what we were living through at the time. I know one too many boring poems convinced me I hated poetry. Then, on my own, I discovered Langston Hughes and thought maybe I was wrong. Still it took me many many years to realize that poetry comes in all different forms. I took a plunge last year and took a brief class in poetry and was shocked to find out that while not my favorite form, I could produce a poem when pressed. In fact I even felt secure enough about the worth of that poem that I entered it in a poetry contest. This afternoon I went to the award ceremony for that contest which 37 senior citizens had entered. There were male and female poets, all sizes and shapes. Some of the poems were about nature, some about family, many about death and aging, but all were reflections of things that were important to the poet. There were a couple that were about.... Well, the truth is I don't know what they were about. Some rhymed, some did not. The shortest was a seventeen word haiku. The longest was...long. I don't know how many of the poets have been reading and writing poetry their whole lives and how many took it up in their later years as a way to pass the time. What matters is they are expressing themselves. It doesn't cost anything and you need nothing save paper and pen. You can write for yourself or share your work with family and friends. Give it a try. You have a life time of material to work with and you just might surprise yourself. As for the award program today...i didn't win, but after reading my poem about the death of my father when I was a child, several of the other poets took the time to tell me they liked my poem and that was almost as good as winning. In fact, maybe it was better.