I was at the open mic at the Sadoff Center in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.  A person new to poetry read a letter to herself.

I asked her if she was surprised by finding that she had positive things to say to herself in the letter. She said yes.

I find this many times. I write about something in a journal and something other than I intend is written on the paper. That to me, is the process of the brain getting organized by writing. By using different neurons to consider your situations.

Then creating a poem and editing it is a further conversation with yourself. To discover a new way of looking at things. So many of our thoughts are negative, so our new thoughts tell us things aren’t so bad. We are not so terrible.

Sadness often comes out as poetry, especially as a young person. I think it is the conflict and tension that send us to trying to work it out on paper. We get tired (eventually) of having the same thoughts over and over again.

Poetry puts our emotions into a form and images. This helps us deal with them. As we deal with them, we take control of them.

When we share our writing, we connect with others.