Why Poetry?

A question I am often asked; there are a multitude of ways to answer, but here is mine: 

More than another form of amusement or entertainment, poetry has been regarded as something central to existence, something having unique value to the fully realized life, something we are better off for having and spiritually impoverished without.

Well, that can be said of all good literature, right? Yes, it can---but poetry is literature at its most succint, most clearly observed, most intense. 

An example:

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

He watches from his mountain walls,

There is a great deal that can be said about this work--the sound, rhyme scheme, speed of the lines, but most importantly, I believe we can enjoy an expanded sense of eagle, feel it as a living creature, thanks to six lines by the great poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

This is a first blog post. Please come again. I hope to bring you some good poems, some pleasure, and do some de-mystifying for you. Thanks for clicking on.