One of the first ways people encounter poetry in some form is often through nursery rhymes. At this stage, poetry paves the way to language acquisition through word play, focusing on rhyme, repetition, and rhythm. As we grow, we leave these rhymes behind, learning to use direct, imperative language to communicate our needs and wants efficiently: I’m hungry. No. I’m leaving. The childish poems fall away with the vulnerability and play of the early years.

If we do not grow up in households that read poetry, or households that read at all, often the next time we encounter poetry is in the classroom. Poems arrive on our desks, but they are not alone. They come with conditions, and with demands. What is the poet’s intention? What are the themes of the poem? We fear the poem. The poem has secrets. The poem is an impenetrable box which we must break open, which we must flatten into an essay. We write the essays, we get our grades. We never want to read a poem again.