Poetry is a rather strange form of expression. Not only does it usually require sticking to prescribed rules (free verse doesn't really count), it can be either pretentious or downright whatever the opposite of pretentious is.
I don't know why I've been thinking about poetry. I don't read many
poems. About the only poetry I know comes in song lyrics and Hallmark
cards. I haven't really thought about poems since college English when I had to write essays about what the poet really meant in a poem that seems quite straightforward. I disliked that - why couldn't the poem just mean what the words said? Oh right, it's a poem. That's what they do. They hide what they mean behind innocuous symbols and seemingly normal scenes. Arrrrgh!
I'm not a poet. I've never claimed to be one, and any poems I've written were purely incidental. Or maybe accidental. Or both. I envy people who can put their thoughts and feelings into a regimented form. When I try, it comes out sounding stilted and like I'm trying too hard, which I usually am.
That's not to say I can't write poems. I can find words that rhyme. I can find phrases that meet a set rhythm. I can even twist the order of words to make them work in a set order. You remember iambic pentameter and the sonatic rhyming scheme - ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. I can do that. But it's not natural for me. Maybe if I were Shakespeare, I'd have better luck. But I'm not even Stephsphere. I'm just Stephanie, and I'm not a poet.
