Fighting Back After Ars Poetica

Poetry is supposed to shake your soul until you beg it to stop; It has to give you nightmares and make you scared to fall asleep; It should leave your heart black and blue and bloody and broken; It has to leave the marks from the poets’ hands around your throat bad enough you can’t swallow your own spit and your mouth is dry and rusty. Poetry has to reach in to your stomach and pull your intestines into your chest; Poetry has to tie you to a chair and beat you till you go unconscious; It has to make you scream enough is enough; It has to make you want to fight back for your life as brutally as you can! It has to give you the tools to make you a survivor. It has to be powerful enough to make a change in your mind; Gentle enough to give you hope of possibility; And it has to resonate enough to lights a fire in your heart. If poetry doesn’t make you want to stand up and change things then it deserves to die untouched, unloved, unfelt, untold.