what we don't understand (poetry version)

 A while back, maybe a couple years ago, I heard of this saying. 

It was something along the lines of "growth is always outside your comfort zone" and "if it scares you, it might be a good thing to try".

I'm not one to latch onto quotes and live by them, but this was really something that stuck with me. It was essentially saying that if you feel fear or nerves before doing something new or putting yourself in a different situation, it just means you have an opportunity to grow.

I remember last year, when asked to sing the American national anthem in front of hundreds of people in two weeks time, I was like, "yeah no problem". But being put in that position at that specific time was a whole other thing. I was full of nerves and questioned why would I even do this to myself. I could've just said no and watched, instead of being the one people watched. While this feeling was initially very strong, immediately following the anthem I was filled with not just relief, but also a feeling of elevation.

The content I felt was immaculate and not something I could've received by just watching someone else. I've come to realize that this feeling is something projected towards many instances in my life. Be it school, or even poetry.

The unconscious resistance I have to poetry may just be a bias I have to things I simply don't understand. Many people find it tough to embrace poetry because it’s often abstract. We’ve been conditioned by school to expect everything to have a definitive answer. In math, history, or science, there are clear right and wrongs, but with poetry? It’s open-ended. And that freedom? It feels uncomfortable to some. There’s no “one” way to interpret a poem, and that freedom invites vulnerability (something a lot of us shy away from).

But I've come to realize that the vulnerability of fear and resistance is what prompts growth. While I do ironically hope I become an amazing poet, I more so hope that I learn from this experience and not let it stop me from my future journey. I hope I learn to not be scared and just let it happen.

My goal as we start this unit of poetry in my English 12 AP class is to not resist, and let myself get lost in a poem's imagery and flow. When we stop trying to force meaning out of it and simply feel it, that's when we unlock the power of poetry. Maybe it’s not about decoding the poem’s “truth” but about discovering our own.

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