Beauties Of Poetry Poem by Dick Holmes

One of the beauties of poetry
is that not much equipment is
needed to practice it —
just a heart with ears.

Another is its openness,
allowing poets the freedom
to express what's in their hearts
as they see fit, in all kinds of ways.
Different schools of poetry and criticism
might define poetry differently and assign
greater value to certain poems that
measure up to the standards
of their definitions, but
poetry itself is silent on the subject
of greater or lesser value,
apparently acknowledging that poems
can be made for various purposes
besides creating an art object —
for healing, for praying, for venting,
for seeking the rhyme and reason
in things that seem at first glance
not to have any,
for fantasizing or telling a story,
for satirizing or otherwise
exposing social injustice,
for exhorting or commanding,
for marveling, for praising,
for giving thanks,
for talking with a friend
or everyone at once,
to name a few.

As one grateful recipient
of poetry's generosity, I can
appreciate the wide range of
uses poetry is put to. I've put it to quite
a variety of uses myself over the years.
Some time ago my poetry practice
was mostly about finding my voice.
Now it's more about losing it so that
some other voice, one not embodied
in any particular speaker,
free to be speaker and listener
concurrently, will come sing
to the wordless rhythm of the moment
filling my heart to the brim.