Poetry is something very intimate. You close the door and bare your soul and when you open the door again, and by chance you share with "other" a miracle happens. The " other one" says: "Oh My God! I feel the same but was never able to articulate it".  When this occurs, I feel there is a communion - an unveiling of souls and - of course - it up lifts both the poet and the reader.

Poetry is important to me because my mother encouraged me to recite early in my life. I loved to read poetry first because of the sounds and the meter, then for the content and the feeling that stayed with me long after. Much later I begun to write. It did not come easy. It took me a long time to "capture poems".

If I had a choice, I would make a campaign so children learn how to recite poetry before they are five. It would give them a head start to appreciate poetry. By the time they are in the third or fourth grade, some of the love for rhythm, words, imagery is no longer there. 

Music is so popular because that is what we feed our children instead of poetry. Listening to popular music gives us the joy of movement but not the joy of hearing, listening and understanding each word, seeing it in the mind and feeling it in the heart. Recently, I was hearing a very popular song. I would dance to its tune, repeat some of the words but I never paid attention to the content of it. This time when I heard the message and how millions of people of my generation were singing, dancing and celebrating that song I was shocked!. 

Tom Jones is telling us about a woman who cheated, he comes with a knife and then "before they break the door" he asks Delilah forgiveness. How could I have been entertained by a song of a murder? Do I want my kids to hear it? No! Is it too late? Definitely. What other songs are sung by children and young people without full understanding?

Hearing poetry one is forced to listen to each word, one is forced to receive all the message and one is forced to absorb in a conscious way...much different than the popular music which is received and absorbed in an unconscious way. Because of that alone I think poetry is necessary and important.

While poetry was not written by the men or women who worked in the fields or in the kitchen, poetry may have been perceived as too rigid and difficult to understand, but the beauty of a good poem is that it can be understood and felt by anyone.

I do not sit and say to myself I will write a poem. Sometimes I "catch" a word, two lines, or a feeling and then I play in my head here and there almost like playing basket ball for days or weeks I bounce and bounce the words and then at a given moment I sit and write it down. I am always amazed! each poem is also a surprise to me!