What is there about poetry that grabs at us. Here are some thoughts.

1) It is usually concise. It's very nature leads to precise words.

2) It freely uses many figure of speech tricks: alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, pun, understatement

3) It alludes to things, often talking of one thing while pointing to another.

4) It tends to be melodious, sometimes lilting, sometimes soothing, sometimes sad.

5.) It talks about common situations that make up the human experience.

6) It is emotional. That is it's big necessity. It needs to move the audience.

So much for the analytical mumbo-jumbo. Poetry is fun. It sounds pleasant coming off the tongue. It began as easily memorized forms of history and myth telling. It still is at its best when it is shared aloud.

That being said it became a written form and had complexities added. But has now become more simplified in modern times.

The best I can tell you about writing poetry is the same that is told to people who write prose. The first thing is to write. You will write a lot of truly awful things in the beginning. Writing is like penmanship, it takes a lot of practice, and to keep it good you must continue to be a critic and have others do this for you too.

Fun is also work, be it hiking, music, dog-training, painting or romance. I encourage you to have fun and I encourage you to let poetry be part of it.

Poetry

Open the floodgates,

let emotions flow

watch as they foam and bubble

in cataracts below.

Pick the one you wish,

joy, sorrow or rage

use your ink and quill

to scribe it on a page.

Then look down

at what your hand has done.

A new work is birthed

'neath the shining sun.

Read it aloud,

tune it to the ear;

make it sound melodious,

sonorous, and clear.

Tell it to a friend,

polish as you can

then put it on display

to please your fellow man.