Finding My Inner Poet

Ever since I was a child, I’ve always loved to write. As soon as I learned how to form letters, I would grab my colorful markers and write all over my Disney Princess covered notebooks. But the fun didn’t stop there. I would eagerly write on any plain white surface I could get my little hands on. My mom always reminds me of this one time she found me sitting on the floor of our den and marking up the walls with my name in big block letters.

Needless to say, I was fascinated by writing and I would do it whenever and wherever I could. As I grew up, I learned that the walls of a house were no place to express my love for writing. I later began writing short stories that were usually an amalgamation of several stories that I heard in the past. I can admit that it wasn’t the most inspiring work that I’ve done, but it served as a tool for me to express my thoughts and feelings.

Often times, the characters in my stories demonstrated emotions that I was personally feeling in that moment. I was a pretty shy kid that never really told others how I was feeling, so depicting my emotions via my characters made me feel a little better. As I practiced my writing more and more, I began to appreciate different styles of literary works that had such incredible ways to tell their stories.One such style of writing that has always mesmerized me was poetry. The sound and rhythmic flow of the writing style was transfixing to me, and I found the ability to convey meaning through a single immensely powerful sentence. I remember how writing poems helped me work through a whole plethora of emotions that I faced on any given day. It became a form of self-expression that helped me make sense of the world around me.

Not being the most confident person out there, writing poems gave me the chance to express emotions that were too scary for me to talk about. Throughout my years of writing poetry, I’ve learned that poetry is an incomparable multipurpose tool that can span over any boundaries. It doesn’t have one single use behind it, and I have found this to be true in several instances in my life. From celebrations to moments of grief, poetry has been a constant in my life in exploring and expressing how I truly feel.

I implore you all
To find your inner poet
And express yourselves

By Ishita Bhatia