I like to read it
I like to write it
If I had some chocolate
I surely would bite it ...
<grin>

I absolutely love poetry. Poems help me to transcend and find glimpses of meaning in this absurd little world. I've written poems since I was 12, published some along the way, but written many, many more. Some roll off the pen with gentle ease, others struggle through draft after draft only to come out a bit flat, and everything in between. I've also taught poetry and fiction in high school Creative Writing courses for over 18 years. Reading and writing poems is how I stay in touch with my passionate creative self. I have to do it. I really enjoy talking about it as well. I'm great at analyzing, finding poetic elements to praise, and offering constructive criticism, plus I've no trouble accepting that type of feedback from others. It is often my goal to find the most phenomenal location, even in a place of relative beauty. A group of poets and poetry enthusiast on an atheist/agnostic website that is almost entirely free of trolls...Let's be poets and get silly.

I like it.
I'd like to write it if I could.
I don't know if it reads like it should.
Often times it's reflective.
Other times it's perspective.
Many times it's depressing.
Though there are times with your mind it's messing.
Yes, oft' times I like it.
Other times I lack wit.

I do enjoy poetry. I'm an artist and I also write on occasion. Not as much as I used to. It's a way to express the repressed part of you. Things you may hide or not. You can put it down on paper to get it out or off your shoulders. Write it down just for your eyes or you can share it with the world.

I do also, but I'm unfortunately not a poetic writer, just have a deep appreciation for a well turned phrase, and rhyming metre.

As a Multi-Genre Lyricist who spent 8 years in Nashville and had many co-writes made into demos'-I love poetry.....Here is an opening verse from one of my songs that people often say reminds them of Keats..

The Bells of Diane
Copyright 2017

Bells of a steady loud cadence
Play yonder and surely her name
Floats out as their echoes within you
Always keeps you under her reign

Hoped you liked that.....

If you would like to hear the song-just message me with your email address and I will send you the MP3

This is a recent poem of mine:

Ignorant Parade

It’s evident the time we’ve spent
adrift from thought and common sense
have lulled the dawn with dull intent
and left the shining morn

Her eyes alight with the turquoise sky
scalds like a finger over velvet lies
her pearly disposition waits for my reply
some words are better left unspoken

Through waves of gloom in a gathering haze
we primp and groom for an ignorant parade
what awaits hereafter should not make us feel afraid
it’s just another ray of rising sun

From time to time our fingers intertwine
grasping for purpose like an abstract mind
this ragged bridge keeps us in a narrow line
and passing only costs a silver token

~Jud

I like poetry that preserves the original paradigm of poetry -- using rhyme, meter, and other techniques to help the oral transmission of long stories. Horatius at the Bridge (Thomas Babbington), written hundreds of years after movable type and publishing, is a perfect example and one of my favorites. Here is a snippet:

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late. 220
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers
And the temples of his gods,

“And for the tender mother 225
Who dandled him to rest,
And for the wife who nurses
His baby at her breast,
And for the holy maidens
Who feed the eternal flame,— 230
To save them from false Sextus
That wrought the deed of shame?

“Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,
With all the speed ye may;
I, with two more to help me, 235
Will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path a thousand
May well be stopped by three:
Now who will stand on either hand,
And keep the bridge with me?”

This one time
I wrote a poem about poetry
And then I wrote a poem about that one
And the fact that I wrote it
Then I wrote one about that
...Am I canon, yet?
It eventually got so meta
That I took that poem and put it up to a mirror in front of a mirror and pondered if, at any given moment, there is actually an equal amount of donut holes and donuts in the world
I almost broke the universe
So, then I just decided to write about, like, romance and shit

Yes..I am a poet and writer.

I'm a musician. I write songs that sometimes rhyme, lol.

Here's my latest work in progress.

I don't forgive, I don't forget.
(blues background music ...)

My blade's the only truth I've met.
My heart the only lie and yet.
Ice is cold and water's wet.
No, you aint seen nuttin' yet.
I don't forgive; I don't forget.
.
My nightmares worse, my daydreams best.
My laughters cursed, my tears are blessed.
Ice is cold and water's wet.
No, you aint seen nuttin' yet.
I don't forgive; I don't forget.
.
His whore you were, enraptured more.
You hid behind that name I wore.
Ice is cold and water's wet.
No, you aint seen nuttin' yet.
I don't forgive; I don't forget.

Orphanage! you sweated sweat.
Never, you swore - and called his bet.
Ice is cold and water's wet.
No, you aint seen nuttin' yet.
I don't forgive; I don't forget.
.
You're dead and gone. I'm still here.
My blade is true its edge still dear.
Ice is cold and water's wet.
No, you aint seen nuttin' yet.
I don't forgive; I don't forget.

My favourite poem is the one that starts 'Thirty days hath September' because it actually tells you something.

some poets Clenched Soul by Pablo Neruda
We have lost even this twilight.
No one saw us this evening hand in hand
while the blue night dropped on the world.

I have seen from my window
the fiesta of sunset in the distant mountain tops.

Sometimes a piece of sun
burned like a coin in my hand.

I remembered you with my soul clenched
in that sadness of mine that you know.

Where were you then?
Who else was there?
Saying what?
Why will the whole of love come on me suddenly
when I am sad and feel you are far away?

The book fell that always closed at twilight
and my blue sweater rolled like a hurt dog at my feet.

Always, always you recede through the evenings
toward the twilight erasing statues

I enjoy peory which finds or creates beauty and/or which creates substantive patterns of meaning -- deep, poignant, intimate.

Well-written prose is, to my mind, as beautiful as music and can bring to life deep feelings. As another form of expression, I think we should "bring it on".

I used to read and write more poetry and still think it's one of the best forms for us to express ourselves. Yet the poetry section is so dusty

Sometimes

I like several poems. I don't like some poems--the ones that wannabe poets write when they have no clue as to how to go about it.

I don,t know if I could be a poet, I could be but not even know it.
Thinking of words might take some time, it's even harder to make them rhyme.
Poetry to music can soothe the soul, if relaxation is your goal.
The world is full of trouble and strife, so try and relax and enjoy your life.
Just look out of your window and enjoy the view, peace on earth is my wish for you.
Happiness and health i hope you will find, the world should come together for the sake of all mankind.

@Admin, lots of poetry-lovers.
Can we have a category for Poems or Poetry, please?

I do like Poetry - There is a huge power in the written/spoken word. Charles Bukowski is one of my favourites -

I love poetry. I used to write a lot of poems. Got wrapped up in music so much kinda lost track of it tho.