Mrs. Lindbloom, English 12AP, English 10, and Journalism

Forget what you learned about poetry in school (that it's complex, opaque, a problem to be solved in 1500 words due tomorrow). Poetry is the last preserve of honest speech and the outspoken heart. It holds the cadence of common life. It has a passion for truth and justice and liberty--the spirit that has kept the American porch light lit through dark ages of history.

And the meaning of poetry is to give courage.

Garrison Keillor

A poem may appear to mean very different things to different readers, and all of these meanings may be different from what the author thought he meant. For instance, the author may have been writing some peculiar personal experience, which he saw quite unrelated to anything outside; yet for the reader the poem may become the expression of a general situation, as well as of some private experience of his own. The reader's interpretation may differ from the author's and be equally valid-- it may even be better. There may be much more in a poem than the author was aware of. The different interpretations may all be partial formulations of one thing; the ambiguities may be due to the fact that the poem means more, not less, than ordinary speech can communicate.

T.S. Eliot

What is a Poet?

A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses

his feelings through words.

This may sound easy. It isn't.

A lot of people think or believe or know they

feel -- but that's thinking or believing or

knowing; not feeling. and poetry is feeling --

not knowing or believing or thinking.

Almost anybody can learn to think or believe

or know, but not a single human being can be

taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think