Why Poetry?

Poetry to me has always been about breaking the rules. While there are many different poetry themes and forms for one to follow, I've always gravitated towards it vs. traditional prose because of the amount of manipulation that can be applied.

Poetry isn't just about the words. Poetry is the page, the lines, the stanzas, the intentional breaks, the spacing, the pace, the tone. It's a story with multiple meaningings in as many or as little words as the writer intends. The one thing that remains fluid and consistent with all of my poetry is intent.

You see, poetry to me is taking complex ideas, emotions, personas, events, places or things and simplifying them; compared to traditonal prose whose purpose can often take simple ideas and make them more complex. There are many rules when it comes to traditional prose, grammar and style alike that over the years felt like boundaries or restrictions.

I enjoy being able to play with different words and space on a page, giving my poems more meaning, emphasis and aesthetics. There is something about capturing a readers attention with a word or words that are on its own line far away

from all the other words

implying and emphasizing being visibly far & away from the other words and also holding specific meaning to those words.

I tend to play with specific word spacing and placement in many of my poems and most certainly in my novels. This is intentional in order to continuously redirect my readers attention, to allow them to focus on what I want them to focus on while simultaneously providing more depth to the piece.

Poetry is an exploration.

An unraveling of an endless ball of yarn.

Some see poetry as being difficult to write but really, we live poetic lives every day.

Poetry is everywhere so long as you are looking.

You are writing it often without even knowing.

So, keep an eye out.

You never know where you might find it.

RAK