Many people have told me that poetry is just a song without music. I think it's a lot more than that. Poetry is raw emotion and feelings brought to life with words and a rhythm. It can be turned into a song, but it's not necessary, and music may even detract from the meaning of a poem.

I remember being in elementary school and having to memorize and recite poems.  I didn't hate it like many students did.  The words, the rhythms, and the rhymes spoke to me. They stuck in my head and I can still recite many of them 40 years later.

My best friend and I had journals full of poems we wrote ourselves. Sometimes we only shared them with each other, but other times we would choose some to publish in the library magazine. As we grew older, we shared them in church and found poetry contests that would publish our work.

Sharing is good. If Robert Louis Stevenson, Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Rudyard Kipling, and Edgar Allen Poe hadn't shared their poetry, the world would be a lesser place. But I think even unshared poetry has its place.  It's a release of our inspiration, love, friendship, faith, grief, hope, and ideas.

Some of my favorite poetry was authored by "Unknown".