Poetry Will Change Your Life Forever
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Poetry will change your life.
I grew up moving around a lot. My father was in the U.S. Army for over 25 years, my parents divorced when I was young, and then I decided to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps for five years. I am very grateful for the opportunities that I have had in my life, but it goes without saying that I faced obstacles.
As a child and teenager, moving around a lot meant that I had trouble making and keeping connections with friends (especially before smartphones and social media were a thing). As a young adult, my lack of social connections created a very shy version of me. I wasn’t very confident, and I was pretty aware of it.
Books and writing became my escapes.
The connections and conversations that I didn’t have with people, I instead had with the pages I read in novels and the pages I wrote in my journals. As time passed, I learned more about the world through my books. I also learned more about myself through the many hours I would spend on self-reflection.
Poetry was the catalyst that led me on a journey of self-discovery.
I have been writing seriously for a decade and independently publishing for about seven years now. Throughout that time, I learned that poetry is more than an art. It’s a necessity, at least for me.
During moments of confusion, anger, sadness, or pain, poetry became a tool that helped me untangle my thoughts and organize my ideas.
As I put pen to paper, the words that would flow revealed to me problems that I didn’t know were even there before, insecurities that I still had to deal with but often chose to ignore. However, writing poetry put my thoughts and feelings into words that would also lead me to the solutions to my problems.
As a person who didn’t have a large group of friends growing up, I had to practice my communication skills in a different way.
Writing poetry, reflecting on my thoughts and ideas, and finding different words to express myself helped me improve my communication across all my relationships. Poetry helped me learn to accurately describe and communicate when I was happy and when I was genuinely hurt. After putting what I felt into words first, I found it easier to share those words with others. Through that, I found that I could put into perspective the positive or negative consequences of my actions and other people’s actions and let myself or others know when something was right or wrong. This process also helped me cope with and understand complex emotions.
When you put your feelings into words, it changes the way you see the world.
As I described love in my poems, I learned about what is felt beyond the heart, what is expressed through body language, and what we would be willing to do for such an emotion. At the same time, I also learned how to observe the sadness in others, and it helped me to understand when I should be more compassionate and empathetic in a given situation, especially when I have been in a similar situation before.
Poetry motivated me to live a life that is worth writing about.
To continue living such a life is what I have promised myself to do ever since I started writing. Thanks to my military career, travels, and relationships with friends and family, I have been blessed with the opportunity to experience and learn things many people don’t get the chance to in their lives.
And finally, I have learned that poetry helps to record memories and life lessons.
In my author’s note at the end of my award-winning poetry book, Bittersweet: Poems on Love, Loss & Wanderlust, I state that one of the most significant reasons I write is to leave something behind for future generations. Through my poetry, my short stories, and whatever other writings I leave behind, I want my future children and grandchildren to get to know a part of me that existed before they did. And I want to leave as much wisdom in those words for them so they can learn from my mistakes and learn to live a life worth writing about too.
We write not just for our sake but for the sake of all those who read our words and are blessed by them.
Because I believe in the immense power of poetry, I wanted to take the skills I have learned throughout a decade of writing and share them with you in my online course, Becoming a Poet: A Course to Unlock Your Writing Potential. This course will help you discover your voice as a unique poet by learning to write impactful poetry using effective strategies to find inspiration and craft evocative imagery.
Every day you do not write poetry is a missed opportunity to learn more about yourself.
However, if a poetry course is not for you, you might still be interested in the free resources I provide you with when you subscribe to my newsletter.
My goal as an independent author is to provide other writers with as much value as possible so that their journeys as poets and storytellers are less challenging.
Because I believe in the power of writing and the ability it has to change the world through our words, my newsletter provides you with a free copy of my professionally developed writing guide, 15 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block. I also include a free digital copy of my collection of published love letters, Red Magic: Love Letters for a Soulmate. The book also includes some reflection questions that will serve as writing prompts that explore what it means to live and what it means to love. I believe everyone has a story to tell and that they should tell it. It is our stories that often inspire and change other people’s lives.
Please don’t miss out on these free gifts and, potentially, your purpose as a storyteller.
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