Why Poetry is a Channel for the World

How poets translate what is happening in our world

Poets are a voice that will cut through and dive ever so deep. Yesterday, I wanted to write something brighter, but I couldn’t. I am a poet.

This loneliness and grief I’m feeling isn’t all mine. Our world hurts. The prevalent abuses tucked into the shadows, denied their voice, the gaslighting, and negating, the incredible twist of lies. Numbness saturates us into believing what isn’t real is truth.

The feelings I feel are beyond me and nearly every time I close my eyes and dream, I wake up crying.

My emotions are a channel. They flicker through a tapestry stitching bolder, brighter, braver sounds; poetry is the colors of my soul.

For the longest time I’ve heard and believed — sometimes I still do — you need to be MORE than just a poet.

But when there’s such an intensity of emotions from every possible angle, I turn back to the format that hears me the best. It’s poetry.

The simplicity of each word carries the weight in my worlds and touches into others. Fragments are welcomed. Imagery is needed. Rules are squashed. Oppression wears a cape.

Poetry hears and translates the many worlds and voices. My thoughts reach inward and travel down, down, down to my fingertips, into an ocean, past the sun, around the planets, and rests with the moon.

I won’t hold back. I am a poet.

Carolyn Riker, MA, LMHC, is a licensed psychotherapist and author of three books of poetry and prose. Her latest is My Dear, Love Hasn’t Forgotten You. If you’d like, follow her on Facebook at Carolyn Riker, MA, LMHC or Instagram.