What is it about poetry?

Last week a friend asked me, "What is it with poetry? I've never really gotten it."

For me, the essence of poetry is hidden in the ordinary experience that becomes extraordinary. Sometimes the experience itself takes years to become extraordinary. Sometimes the experience crystallizes in a flash. When the articulation of such an experience follows, a poem is born. The poet looks for and recognizes this opportunity.

For me, the extraordinary experience is about the deep connecting of my eternal spirit with my feet of clay. The experience reminds me to balance my spirit and my body, weighing daily living with matters of eternity.

I often feel the extraordinary experience before I begin to consciously process it. I look out for the extraordinary, anticipating the articulation that might follow*. I am an addict for this. This is the reason I write poetry. Additionally, I not only experience the extraordinary firsthand, but I have found I can also experience it through the poetry of others' conveyed moments. This is the reason I read poetry.

Here's one such favorite poem that perfectly captures what I have just described, for me. Another poem which does this for me is the 23rd Psalm.

Detail from a ceramic bowl I keep on my desk at my internship.
It is filled with sand and shells I've gathered from different beaches.
These objects are rich in meaning, full of poetry.

*This also happens to be why I love all art forms. I could replace the words poem/poet in the preceding paragraphs with the words painting/painter or silver/silversmith, song/musician, etc. and it would all still hold true. The common denominator is the extraordinary experience, the variable is the medium through which the experience is articulated.