Poetry is a friend, a constant companion. She carries me above the daily irritations, worries and seemingly insurmountable obstacles of my life. She helps me excape to a realm of colourful images, lyrical language and rib-tickling rhymes.
Poetry has command of the theatrical, the romantic and the comic.
She has the strength to trumpet a call to arms and the sensibility to carry the tenderest thoughts of a shy lover. She speaks to nations and to individuals, drawing them together with rainbow threads of language, mood and imagery. She creates a bond which links us all, one to another, as we read silently or aloud, listen collectively or alone. I am thinking in particular of the writings of the war poets who gather people together under the cover of collective responsibility and shared history. Poetry can inspire, move and stir to action.