What Poetry Means To Me
Like the parched earth
that longs for a drop of water
and feels vigorous
when it rains,
Like the scorching sun
that longs for a shade for itself
and calms down
when evenings set in,
Like the broken heart that
longs for healing
and its wounds fill up
when someone loves it again,
Like the infant
that longs for warmth
and feels secure in its
mother’s arms.
Like all the lonely people
who long for a conversation
and are ecstatic
when someone talks to them,
Like the drowning man
who wants to live,
and delighted
even if he catches a straw,
I hold on to poetry —
For a drop of water
for shade, for healing
for warmth, for a conversation.
Poetry was the last straw
that saved me from drowning
in an ocean of sadness.
Poetry saved me
from self-loathing
and negativity.
Poetry gave me the confidence to be me,
to express myself in words like never before.
Poetry taught me to write my stories
of failures and triumphs
and weave them into poems.
Poetry taught me to be fearless,
expressive, and creative at my best.
Poetry soothes me!
In response to Ode To The Healer by Monoreena Acharjee Majumdar.
Thanks Monoreena :-)
Quite overwhelming to say the least, but Poetry holds a very special place in my life now. I did not write a poem as one of my first writings. They were all short stories or articles. I never thought I could write a poem. I wrote Hope during a very difficult time in my life (after writing a few short stories), got some inspiration from those words, then just forgot about it. I resumed writing poetry very recently and have been posting on Medium. We sometimes don’t realize our worth when it comes to writing unless we try writing in the actual sense. This has been a beautiful and inspirational journey.
©A.H. Mehr
