Inexperienced Poet

I don't know much about poetry.

When I was in the first grade, I thought it was about rhyme

That was the only thing I knew about it at the time

And that's all that poetry meant to me.

I was never taught much about poetry.

When I was in the sixth grade I thought it was about structure

Iambic pentameter hitting my

Ears accustomed to

Five seven five haikus in

Middle school classrooms.

I don't know much about poetry.

When I entered seventh grade

Pre-teen eyes and ears finally turning themselves to the "why" and "how",

Rather than the "what" of art,

I saw structure and rhyme

and rebellion from just that

E.E Cummings in my generic English textbook

punctuation, thrown: everywhere!

Disregarding the meaning in favor of the feeling

I knew what the words meant, but I began to dig for real meaning.

I was never taught much about poetry.

When I was halfway through freshman year I found it myself online

Without structure and rhyme

And no obvious intent for literary rebellion

Simply rebelling from containing self, and shoveling emotion into my opening eyes

Posted poetry of kids digging their own graves

While I dug through overtaught authors in advanced placement classrooms.

I don't know much about poetry.

But I know that when I was in sophomore year

Watching slam poets on youtube

And when I finally touched pen to paper to tenatively try my hand at planting seeds of emotion

For someone else to pick from the text

I learned that what I don't know is what keeps me here,

Always gleaning something new from the words blooming in someone else's skull.

I was never taught much about poetry.

But I was taught by the world that emotion needs an outlet,

And when I see a poet crying their passion on stage

And when I read the words of poets who buried lines in drawers

And cried in times passed,

I know that the emotion that fuels my poems

Is far more important than plugging in the technicalities I've studied in public school.

And.

I know that why poetry exists,

Why it sprung from the dirt in beautiful, wordy tendrils

Just like Genesis says we did,

Is far more important than the form it takes.