I like poetry because it turns literature into music.  It makes the words sing with rhythm and it dresses them up with color because poetry is so descriptive.  It moves me more than prose (plain words).  It can make me cry or sing and it always makes me think.

             Niki asked for some tips on writing poetry so I am posting a little bit about my own experiences with poets and poetry in the past. Hopefully this can be of some assistance.

             When I was younger and in first, second, third and fourth grade, I read from a different poet's works each term of school. I ONLY read that poet’s works and then I chose my favorite poem to memorize.  Some of my favorites were Alfred Lord Tennyson, Sarah Teasdale, Emily Dickinson, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I didn’t study poetry at all.  I just read one poem a day and at the end of the term when exams rolled around, I wrote my own poem in the style of one of the poets that I had studied that year. This helped me to recognize how each poet has a very different style. I began to learn how to pick out the styles of each poet so that I could tell it apart from another poet. This gave me a good understanding of the works of other poets. I would recommend that anyone who wants to write poetry, should spend time reading the poems of others so that they can become familiar with different styles.

            Another thing I would recommend is simply practice. It is true that "practice makes perfect." I wrote many poems while I was young and so I learned to improve myself as I grew. I still write many poems and practice a lot. I hope that with practice I can become a much better poet than I am now.  I have my own poetry journal.  It is small and I can take it outside or wherever I go so that when I am inspired by something, I can write my thoughts down right away, so I don’t forget them. I think that poetry is an attempt we make to put thoughts or inspirations on paper and so it really takes an inspiration to write a really good poem.

Frodo