Poetry for the Soul

What is it about poetry that intrigues us?  Reading it, writing it, collecting it.  Fills our soul.

Poetry has been around as long as there has been speech.  There are famous poets whose words have touched us deeply, whose lines we memorize and often use for metaphors in life.

I was thinking about poetry after a conversation with a dear friend, and wondering how it might fit in with the New Pioneer blog.  Perhaps it is the slower pace of my lifestyle, the rhythmic flow of my relationship with nature.

I wonder if the lives of the masses have gotten too busy for poetry, if civilization has become too hardened by stresses and struggles to be able to appreciate the gentleness of poetry.

I have written verse and essays all my life, since I was six years old and reading Winnie the Pooh.  I especially love journaling and working things out on paper.

My first published piece was in a teachers magazine when I was around eleven, I think.  My English teacher was very supportive of my writing.

All through my teenage years I wrote poetry, mostly sorrowful and love-struck verse.  I wrote some poems for my newborn son in my late twenties.

But all in all I don't think I really took it seriously, it was always just a hobby and a much needed outlet to express myself.

Now in my midlife, I find myself returning to it.  Reading it, writing it, seeing it in my landscape.

Through a bizarre set of circumstances recently, (there are no accidents!), I was lead to read some of Mary Oliver's work, and I am surprised I never read her work before.  Divine!  It's all about nature.

I never thought about including my endless relationships with wildlife in my poetry - what a gift!

So I'm thinking from time to time I will include a poem or two here on New Pioneer and perhaps an accompanying photo -if the wildlife will stop long enough for a pose or two.

Meanwhile I will close this post with one I just wrote last week.  Untitled as yet.

The birds

welcome me

into their

sacred space

If I will

but be

like them

Gentle and peaceful

at one with all

Unsuspecting

and grateful

Friends

with the earth

and sky

Rejoicing

in the mystery

of that

which they call

home