What does it take to be a poet?

A friend in my prayer class shared this about poetry and "musing" and I really loved it - so I'm sharing it with all of you:

"What does it take to be a poet?

"I remember being in grade school and the teacher trying to get us to write poems. At that age, we were all about rhyming…most of us were good at it because children are endlessly creative when it comes to making up rhyming nicknames for each other. But, after studying more in high school and college, I came to realize true poetry is a labor of love. It takes a deep love of something to make a person willing to spend the time necessary to ponder the depths or intricacies of that object – not just describing the “outsides” of that object, but getting to the core – the essence – that is loved. The greatest amount of work in poetry is not in the writing, but in the pondering/musing (otherwise we’re just trying to make words rhyme). I’m wondering how many of the early great poets were scolded by their parents for “daydreaming” or “wasting time” or “never getting anything important accomplished?”

And then the Lord says we are His poema - His poetry. How much pondering and musing went into the creating of me? Oh, it is lovely not being mere matter that was formed randomly by a large explosion!

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