In the beginning of this love affair with poems

I learned I

was empowered 

by the way words flowed from my pen.

I saw that

it was a unique talent that

not many got

and fewer choose to practice.

 

Through the years I

expressed myself through poetry:

even high school's entirety,

though it began with that first,

"My Pencil Is My Partner" poem

I wrote for a contest in fifth grade.

Ever since then,

it has been,

just my pen and I,

(and a journal).

 

I write to:

maintain my sanity,

exorcise the demons inside of me,

capture memories to look back on.

I could write five pages about how a date went,

but my emotions would be

better captured in a poem:

just one or two stanzas.

 

Poetry is my heart, my identity, my mind.

I don't like the expansiveness of essays,

filling up the space, filling in the pages.

I like poetry:

vague, 

beautiful,

symbolic.