"I Don't Like Poetry"

"I don't like poetry,"/ I said on the first day of my fifth grade poetry unit./ "I'm not doing this,"/ I declared in seventh grade,/ When the last thing I wanted to do was put my thoughts onto paper. Poetry is a reflection of the soul./ Poetry is emotional./ Poetry is not for me./ I convinced myself that I could write without being personal./ But writing is vulnerable./ To write is to bare a piece of your soul into the world./ But I wasn't ready. I told myself that I appreciated poetry./ The way that an author could tell her entire life story/ In a single word. A single line. A single story./ But the only way to appreciate/ Or understand something/ Is to create./ Research, essays, articles./ I wanted to be impersonal./ To take credit for what anyone could do./ It wasn't me./ I was uncomfortable./ But I was growing. Poetry has taught me/ That I can be vulnerable./ Art, music, writing, have the power to/ Bring us together./ It is what we stay alive for./ It's how we advocate,/ For others,/ For our families,/ And for our cultures. As writers pour their hearts out/ In hope of understanding,/ Acceptance,/ To shed light on a piece of the human soul,/ We are truly seeking understanding and acceptance From ourselves.