People write, Writers write, I write

People write to talk about life. To complain, to brag/Or to make themselves feel important./They write to call out old girlfriends, dead-beat boyfriends,/lazy husbands, or unfaithful wives./Sometimes they even write to praise their family/Maybe to let everyone know how much/The soldier in their family means to them./ People write to see something on paper or on a computer screen/And to know they put it there.   Writers write to tell a story, to paint a picture that anyone can see./Writers write to create a world that anyone can live in/And everyone can fit into. They bring every person/to the same place, strip them of all their riches, rags, colors/And imperfections, and they make them all equal./A writer can release you from your stresses and launch you into an adventure./They can imprision you; trap you with their words/In a place that you don't really want to escape from/Because you want to see what happens./It's like being caught in the room with Grandpa/When he starts talking about "When I was your age"/But then you find yourself cross-legged on the floor, hoping he has one more story/Maybe about the war, getting lost in Japan or Grandma./Writers write to help us get away.   I write because it is the only way that I can remember things./Each poem or short story opens the flood gate of the past./I remember catching kittens at Grandpa's barn/And carrying them back to the house in the bib of my overalls./I remember the possum/Hissing at my big brother when he poked it with a stick./I remember Mimi's stories about growing up in Japan/And having to eat grasshoppers because/They didn't have enough food. I remember her/Stories about being taught to use weapons/Because there was a war going on and even the girls were taught to fight./I remember Aunt Lillie telling me about the Great Depression,/But I also remember/That Aunt Lillie can't remember the Great Depression anymore/And the only way for me to remember her stories,/Is to write a poem or a story about them./I write because I want to be able to show my children/What generations past went through. These are the things/That they can't learn from textbooks./Where else will they/Learn them unless I write them down?/Poetry is my passion because it unlocks so much that would be forgotten./I write to remember and to preserve.