Why People Need Poetry

I love this TED talk! If you read my recent blog about Why I Write or watched my presentation at the Inspire Speaker Series in Downtown Las Vegas you know I write poems. I've written more than 150 since junior high. I don't know what made me start, other than an insatiable need to get my feelings out. I felt no one could understand what I was going through, so I wrote it out . . . my feelings, fears, hopes and dreams.

I never intended to share my poems. They were like a diary. Every once in a while when I heard a friend was going through something I experienced, I would share a poem I wrote when I went through a similar situation. My friends loved my poems and kept asking to read more.

As I got older, I felt others could understand me so, as quickly as the poems came, they stopped flowing out of me. A few friends didn't like the fact that I quit writing poetry.

In true poetic fashion, I wrote a poem to explain why I stopped writing poems, called Poets Are Madmen. If you like it, you can find it in my book, Poetic Justice: Lessons of love, life & relationships.

Poets Are Madmen

Poets are madmen
who see visions and dreams
they look inside of souls
and tell you what it means

A psychotic little world
nobody can understand
they bring the strong to their knees
it’s a universal plan

Tears of joy and sorrow
aren’t expressions of grief
as they make the masses wonder
and stare in disbelief

You think you understand
the translation of their words
but if you read between the lines
you might see what they want heard

In desperation they try
merely to fit in
a normal reality
to a poet is a sin

For without experience of places
where most run and hide
the poet can never express
your deepest feelings inside

Thoughts of lust and freedom
tears of grief and joy
the hidden soul comes to life
you lost with your childhood toys

Dare to taste their wine
and drink from their cup
at a table set for one
you’ll never grow up
© Tami Belt