Mission Statement: A Defence of Poetry

Hello and welcome! I guess I should begin with my reasons for setting up this blog. Well, my main one is because I love poetry so much and I'd love other people to love it too!

My second reason is that I feel poetry gets slammed too much by negative stereotypes. I want to debunk and devalue those slanders by showing poetry for what it really is, and what it can do.

Because it's not elitist. It's not pompous. It's not for literary snobs. It's not boring. It's not depressing. It's not traditional fodder. It's not redundant. It's not difficult.

To begin with, it's for everyone. Don't like poetry? But surely you like music, songs, and that is poetry. Poetry is everywhere. Do you admire sunny days, sunsets, marvel at beautiful scenery? That's part of the poet in you. Ever been in love? Because love makes poets of us all. As UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy says, 'we carry poetry inside us - even if we do not read or write it.'

How can poetry not relate to us? It deals with ordinary things that we all are familiar with, but makes them extraordinary. It's alchemy - turning the metal of everyday into gold. It's treasure. It's wisdom. It's relevant. It's exciting. Illuminating. Enlightening. Uplifting. Life-affirming. It lets us see things anew. It also makes us aware. It marks all the wonderful things that happen to us in this human condition. It's important. It matters. It makes things matter. It's made up of wonder and beauty.

But what it does mostly - is transform all those squirming, vague, troublesome, knotted entities that mark a human - emotions - into words, and so, into understanding and meaning. And in the process, creates beauty and truth. Two qualities that all human souls require. 

Reading a poem a day is akin to taking a vitamin for the soul. I love poetry. I read it often; almost on an everyday basis, but of course, there are days that I don't. I forget about it. Prefer instead to get swept along by routine's currents. And it's on those days, that I feel the gaping lack of it. 

So, the idea of this project. I'll have to go to a poem a day, every day, without fail,  and I am wholly excited about sharing them! Even on the days when poetry is the last thing I feel like (these are usually the days when I need it the most). As you will see, poetry can be solace, or a wake-up call, a reminder, a delight, an offering of wisdom, of meaning, a revealing. And always, a close-up look at life. 

Now that's my manifesto finished. It's hard for me to put into words how much I love poetry, so I'm going to stop and from now on, let the poems do all the talking.

I hope that you'll join me in this project. More than that, I hope you'll join in! Are there any poems you'd like to see? Requests most welcome (365 days+ is a large mandate). And I'd love to hear your thoughts on the poems! What is it you love about them? Or confuses you? Let this be a forum for sharing!

I hope that you enjoy these poems as much as I do!

Thanks for reading,



~ Siobhán.