As a poet, writer, reviewer of poets and musicians, high schoolteacher and business owner, I have always been aware and mystified by this barrier between everyday life and poetry. For me, poetry is always my first plan, my foundation, my way of ordering the world doesnt order or structure me.
But somehow poetry has een shoved in the 'literary' corner and real life in another. And then we wonder why there's a plethora of mental, spiritual, emotional health problems, a saturation of yoga and 'mindfulness' apps and kids' utter hatred of words unless its being spit in a monotone by an aggressive guy wearing designer gear.
For me, poetry is the organic reflection of life and experience everyone should make space for. If you can't find ten minutes to reflect in the day, I don't care who you are, how 'successful', you are a rat on a treadmill.
Poetry happens in bus stops, supermarket queues, as you're sitting on the toilet, as you're making a cuppa, as you're walking to work. It doesn't happen when you're plugged in, it happens when you allow yourself the space to disconnect and reconnect with yourself, the world, the wonder of life around you in a new way.
Without censorship.
Without an agenda.
Poetry is in our DNA. We are rhythmic creatures, electricity is what drives our heartbeat. We are vibrational creations, a mass of chemicals and elements that are sensitive to light, to sight, to sound, to taste, to smell. We are seeds yearning to be plants, to thrive, to become trees, rooted and alive.
Rhyme and rhythm are the strands that grow our natural language; we are NOT digital. An algorithm will never revive us.
So instead of trying to bring the everyday to poetry, I've decided to bring poetry to life, to the everyday. If no one reads books of poems or has time to listen to downloads, I will GRAFFITI them on the essential items of life. I'll INSCRIBE them in trees and plants and homes and walls. I'll GROW them in greenhouses and woodsand nurseries.
I'll go back to the bare roots of me, where I started all this from, the poetry that made me free.