How I fell back in love with poetry

The beginning

I read poetry in school. In college. The way most of us do—assigned, analyzed, quickly forgotten. And then, for years, I lost touch with it entirely.

Until I picked up Gaston Bachelard's Poetics of Space. It's a book about how we inhabit houses, corners, drawers—but it's sprinkled with verses. Fragments of Rilke, Baudelaire, Supervielle. One thing led to another. I started seeking out the poems themselves. And somewhere in that seeking, I fell in love again.

The beauty of poetry is hard to describe. The poet laureate Tracy K. Smith once said that poetry is "a language that sits really close to feelings that defy language." That's as close as I've come to understanding why these words matter.

Why this matters now

Poetry doesn't explain. It doesn't solve or optimize. It sits with things—grief, wonder, the strangeness of ordinary moments—without rushing to resolve them.

I think we're all born knowing how to do this. To notice what's strange. To sit with ambiguity. To wonder without needing an answer. But somewhere along the way, we lose the habit.

This site is my attempt to reclaim some of that. Not by teaching you to write poetry—but by inviting you to read it. Slowly. Without pressure. Just to see what happens.

The notes in the margins

Each poem here comes with reading notes—observations, not explanations. They're not meant to tell you what a poem means. They point to patterns, tensions, and moments you might have missed. A thoughtful friend sitting beside you, noticing things aloud.

The notes might be wrong. They might miss the point entirely. That's okay. Poetry resists being explained away. The poem is still there, waiting for your own reading, your own encounter.

Three ways to begin

• Wander

  Let chance decide. Poems appear one at a time, like cards dealt from a deck. Skip what doesn't speak to you, save what does. Most people find something they weren't looking for.

• Browse by feeling

  Looking for something specific? Find poems organized by emotional resonance—stillness, wonder, grief, joy, longing, defiance. Start where you are.

• Linger

  There's no rush here. Read slowly. Re-read. Let the words settle. Poetry rewards patience—and so does this site.