Let me be clear.

I was in the fourth grade when my teacher said to me, "I want to enter your Haiku in the school's poem competion." I was excited because I was going to be entered into something huge. My writing was going to be up so that the world could see, at least that's what it felt like. I know. Haikus are only 3 lines but I loved it! I expressed what I thought in 3 little lines and the fact that I would get recognition for it was thrilling. I remember trying my best to make sure spelling and grammar were correct. I actually won third place and I entered again in fifth grade.

That was the beginning of my writing. It beame easy to write fluently, even gracefully, because of poetry. Poetry opened my creative mind and gave me... a mystical feeling that whatever I write can and will be beautiful. There are avenues in poetry that are not available in everyday writing. You're taught from a young age how to fit your introduction, body, and conclusion on one page in order to get a 5 on a state assessement test. So, whenever a time came when I could just free write, I jumped on it. I would feel my shoulders slacking and a calm as if I was looking at the ocean before the break of dawn come over me. It was my way of expressing truths, secrets, and inner feelings that I couldn't continue to hold in.

Everyone has drama but the worst thing is to not have an outlet for it. It's hard not to have someone to talk to or some sport to let out your emotions. Free writing was my outlet. It was when my parents were agruging, people were talking about me, and when my situations became too much to bear that I found a peice of paper and wrote about it. I OWE IT TO POETRY. It was the words that nobody else could've understood that the very paper I was writing on comprehended so perfectly. POETRY. When I wanted to write my love letters or something charming, it was POETRY. When I wanted to clear myself from doubts and worries, let me be clear, it was POETRY.

Poetry gave me what I needed in order to convey me.