I was reading a quote from Stanley Kunitz yesterday where he said, “Poetry is the medium of choice for giving our most hidden self a voice–the voice behind the mask that all of us wear.” And I was thinking about those masks and how poetry helps to keep me honest, to myself and to those around me. I think the writing and reading of poetry is a leveling field for our emotional interaction with our world. It’s one that can make things clear and define how we find our way in the world.

Write a poem today and share it. Here’s mine:

Winter Walk

It’s a celery day
that snaps
and clears my head
from the grog of yesterday’s rain.
Color glitters.
I walk until there never was
the unlifted fog or Skagit drizzle
Just the sound of wintering swans.