"Hail Poetry"

"Although we live by strife, we're always sorry to begin it,

 For what, we ask, is life without a touch of Poetry in it?" 

~ W.S. Gilbert

"The  Pirates of Penzance"

   To speak is to release a little essence of yourself, which is a fine thing, if it is caught from the air and retained, but to write is to immortalize yourself. To leave that same piece of your mind, in a more succinct permutation, in perpetual existence, unchanged. 

   We who devote ourselves to this art, this religion, this love affair with language, are dreamers. We hope that our words will outlast the thoughts which produced them, and will be read by the masses, so that just a tiny part of us may live forever. Still more closer to our hearts is the desire to touch another person's heart - or soul. 

   I believe that for a writer, there is no greater pleasure than to know that we have touched someone. We may have a beloved friend who is our inspiration, and though we may have written something wonderful, that felt freeing to write and cleared our mind, a greater reward still is the pleasure that friend feels when she learns that she was your muse. For perhaps she holds a special place in your heart, and you do not know how else to express the way you love her. Perhaps few people really understand you as she does, and for this you desire to honor her in this timeless and far-reaching medium.

   Writing about someone, and knowing that they will read it is a peculiar ecstasy, for it allows us to be just as honest and also as poetic as we like, because it is easier to relate your feelings for someone when you don't have to worry about saying it right the first time. To be able to communicate the best way you know how that you respect someone - or that you love someone - is a blessing not even a god can give.

    Whether our aim is to wound or to woo, words are our weapon and our warmth. The power we sometimes have is an incredible gift, and it is one we have made ourselves. And whether the person we have touched is an old friend, a new love interest, or a unknown young woman in Missouri, it is our earnest hope that when our words were drawn into their mind, our spirits and our lives were for a moment united.