Poetry is an essential part of history and can be found anywhere. People can find poetry in books, music, and even art. Poetry is always around, and it’s been that way for a long time. It’s so important that students still learn about its history in our classes and how to write different poems in English. It’s an outlet to pour creativity into, it’s something easy that doesn’t have to take a lot of energy, whether you decide to follow a formula or write in a freeform way with no expectations or rules to follow.
“It is a specific, formulaic way for kids to be creative, and especially in the last decade, creativity is not something we’re seeing a ton from every kid.” English teacher Krissy Rasmussen said. She believes poetry is an easy way to teach kids about writing from the past in a way that’s not difficult. “Reading something you [don’t] have to stretch your brain for is important for us. People always want us to understand what [they’re] telling you. Versus here is something that ‘they’ felt.”
“Despite performing poetry in front of the school, I don’t consider myself a poet,” says Senior Piper Planalp, who has performed her poetry pieces in the school talent show for the last two years. “Events from my life inspire me, but I’ll write about things that aren’t related to me.” She explains how she imagines herself in different situations to inspire her writing. “I write about my own experiences, but I’m just writing how I feel.”
Planalp believes poetry is important because it’s a short, easy way to be creative and to take in others’ creativity. “Writing is important today, [poetry] is a way to present ideas that make people think, but also doesn’t need to take up a bunch of time,” Planalp said. “In this society where time and attention spans are so taxed, spoken word has the ability to be short form, [and] it’s something we should engage with more.”
Along with poetry changing as people and society changes, the ways you can express and share poetry has also changed as society turns to online platforms.
“I don’t love online platforms, but I think the accessibility of creativity is [important],” Rasmussen said. She believes that she sees people using physical imagery to give life to their poetry on social media platforms, and compares that to the past, where that wasn’t possible. “So if anything, the evolution of poetry [has] given us an audience for our words, and some people thrive off of that.”
As sharing poetry continues to be more widespread, people all over the world have the opportunity to hear new forms of poetry. Some forms rely on the emphasis in a sentence more than others, such as spoken word.
“[Emphasis] brings life into words,” Planalp said. Emphasizing different words when presenting a piece, such as in slam poetry, gives the sentence new meanings. Such as the infamous phrase ‘I didn’t steal the money’. When you emphasize different words in the sentence, the topic changes entirely. “You feel the emotions of [the piece], I think it allows for variation.”
It’s not just the emphasis on words that gives power to a piece, but the words themselves. “Words by nature are powerful; they can change minds, instill powerful emotions,” Planalp said. “Poetry is able to do that because it’s like a song; music is essentially just poetry.” Planalp got into poetry because she used to write songs, and she realized it was shockingly similar. “It creates art, it’s impactful because of what it can do for people.”
While emphasis and power do bring many interpretations to someone’s writing, it doesn’t always need a deeper meaning. “I do think that poetry resonates differently, [but] I don’t think that means there are a million interpretations,” Rasmussen said. She believes that poetry never has just one meaning, but it also doesn’t have a million meanings. It all depends on a person’s interpretation and how it makes them feel. “How that resonates with us can be a different emotion, maybe disgusted or sad or we fall in love with it,” Rasmussen said. “Those feelings can be different, but much of the time the poem itself is speaking similarly to all of us.”
“My hope is that poetry offers a way to [bring] beauty and emotion into words,” Rasmussen said. She describes her hopes for the future of poetry and poetry’s growth. “Poetry is not an argument, it’s an experience, it’s a conversation I’m starting,” Rasmussen claims that when someone is speaking or yelling poetry, you’re just a bystander listening in. “Poetry invites you into someone’s world and asks you to be a part of it; I think it’s important.”
Planalp advises everyone to just write, even when you don’t know what to write about. “The best things that I’ve written have come from a stream of consciousness,” Planalp said. “I journal, and sometimes I rhyme, but I think anyone can do that.” She says sometimes poetry is simply something you’re writing down, and it doesn’t always have to be exact and formulaic. “There’s no one else [writing] it, and I think we should get to a point where everyone does because it’s fun.”
