“When you live in a rapidly moving swirl, you can only view your surroundings with a glance. Poetry requires us to slow down, to take time to pause. ”
As a Language Arts & Literature teacher for many years, I presented a poetry unit every year. My students loved the variety that we read and wrote. Many of them wrote beautiful heart-filled words about their changing world and middle school experience.
One of my favorite poetry web site is Academy of American Poets – http://www.poets.org/
You can go there and sign up for a poem-a-day. I love this option–receive meaningful emails that sing with the soft sound of poetry.
Poetry forces me to slow down and see this world in a different light, in a thoughtful glance, and then to shine the light out to the world through my words and thoughts!
Yes, I am a poet above all else!