3 Reasons Why You Should Start Writing Poetry

You probably saw this post and was like "Pfft. Poetry, smoetry." Or maybe it triggered traumatic flashbacks to a high school English class. If the latter occurred, I'm sorry.

But poetry isn't just limited to nonsensical Elizabethan English and trying to find a hidden meaning within a phrase like "the curtains were blue." In fact, after taking one such class, I found my true appreciation for writing and reading poetry. So, without further ado, I'll share with you 3 reasons that might convince you to start writing your own sonnets!

1. Poems Make Wonderful Gifts

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Want to show appreciation for your friends? Express your feelings for that special someone? Gift them a poem. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. It can be as short as a haiku or as long as an ode (you don't want to make it too long though). Taking the time to write a poem speaks volumes and shows how much you truly value the person you're gifting it to.

Last Christmas, I decided to gift all my friends some poetry. It was one of the best decisions I've made in a while. They all loved the poems I wrote for them, and some even felt bad that they didn't have a gift in return. Well, the latter isn't really a good effect to have, since I had to try to assure them it was okay... But it really shows how appreciated the gift was!

Poetry as a gift also works well if you can't see someone in-person. You can just text them a Google Docs link or get fancy and send them a nice Photoshoped image with your poem on it. I actually don't know how you would gift poetry to someone in person... Maybe you could figure it out and tell me about it?

2. Poems are Decent Emotional Vents

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Poetry is also good for expressing your emotions. Like if you're feeling sad, lonely, or upset, you could write about it. I think writing poetry for this purpose is better than keeping a diary because you can make your writing super cryptic to where people have to guess if "blue curtains" actually means if you're sad or not. But that's for those people who like to keep their emotions hidden, I guess.

This also allows you to put some negative emotions into something constructive rather than destructive. There was a time during my life when I was depressed due to... Well... Let's just say due to "relationship complications". Anyways, I was not in a good spot, but I wrote about it in poetry. Yes, they were rather edgy and very cringe, but I didn't care because it felt good just to get it out. But don't take this to mean "ditch therapy and other methods of coping with things". It's just something on the side.

But not everything has to be weeping and gnashing of teeth. You can also write poetry about the good and wonderful things that happen in your life as well. Like you're just so filled with optimism and Good Vibes™ that you just can't contain it anymore and then the sunshine-and-rainbows filled radiation leaks out into your poem!

3. Writing Poems Can Make You More Creative

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When I first got into writing, my works used to be very rigid, almost like writing an expository essay. Rhymes were the bane of my existence. Syllable count was torture. I remember having to write 1 of each type of poem for an assignment in 8th grade and it almost killed me.

Now that I write poetry in my free time, I realized that there is no set of rules to follow. Almost anything goes. And that allows for some really creative constructs. For example, you can line break in the middle of sentences, creating short and choppy lines possibly revealing your discombobulated thoughts. But that's pretty basic. I myself am still learning about the extent to which poetry structure can be manipulated.

Aside from the structure, there is also the content of your poem that you can get really wacky with. It can be super abstract or super concrete. If you're taking an English class, you'd probably kill for a concrete poem, yeah?

Anyways, messing around with the structure and content of a poem can really get those creative juices flowing. And you might even be able to apply that creativity to other parts of your life. This isn't a guaranteed effect though, so don't sue me if it doesn't work.

So yeah, that's it. In the future, I might make a post about how to write somewhat decent poetry and link it here, heh.

Please leave any comments down below, thank you!