What is Poetry? Google defines poetry as a "literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm; poems collectively or as a genre of literature."
In "Of Modern Poetry," Wallace Stevens says of poetry, "It has to be living, to learn the speech of the place / ... / In the delicatest ear of the mind, repeat, / Exactly, that which it wants to hear, at the sound / Of which, an invisible audience listens, / Not to the play, but to itself.."
What is it about a downbeat and rhythm that delivers meaning so artfully. From written to spoken word, from form to free verse, poetry is bringing people together. It is letting us know that we are not alone. How magnificent it is to find solidarity buried in trochees and assonance. When you sit down and realize that clues can be hidden in something as simple as the way lines are married into stanzas, how do you go on living life without exploring every unturned rock and fallen leaf? Poetry opens us up to a world full of Wonder Balls. There are always treats to be found if you are willing to break apart the shell to taste them. And maybe the shell isn't always as easy to break apart as chocolate, but does that ever make the prize any less worth it?
And yes, Robert Frost reminds us there is always work to do "and miles to go before I sleep"("Stoping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"), but take comfort in knowing that T.S. Eliot will always assure us that, "there will be time, there will be time"("Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"). So let poetry remind you to stop and give reverence to the beauty of this world and all the people in it. Let its enjambments connect you with people all around the world.