I heard this quote a while ago: “A poet is born, not made.”  I don’t know if that’s true, but I feel like I have always had a poet’s heart.  I don’t even really know how I got started writing poetry.  I remember taking great pleasure in it when I was a child, and after that it just kind of stuck.  I am grateful to the teachers in my life who put so much effort into trying to guide young people towards developing an appreciation for a skill that is often overlooked and undervalued.  Personally, I find that it is a way to express myself that is different from any other.  There is something about the rhythm and the way you can paint a beautiful picture with only a few select words… It is almost meditative for me.  When I am writing, the rest of the world just disappears for a while.  At the same time, it helps me to sort through my thoughts and feelings, shining a light on what I am experiencing in that moment.  To me, there is an honesty in poetry, and a vulnerability that often isn’t expressed in other forms of writing.  It seems a bit odd to write a poem about writing a poem.  But I think at the time I was looking for a way to explain why it means so much to me.  Is there a poem inside of you, just waiting for you to let it out?

Poetry
By Krista Longeway

Sometimes it starts
as a tiny trickle of thoughts
slowly forming,
then flowing freely
from deep within,
painting pictures,
creating music
with the words
and emotions
of my heart.
The contents 
of my dreams
spilled out onto paper.
Words,
the first strokes
on the canvas
of my mind.