As someone who used to hate poetry for some vague reason, I can tell you all now just how beautiful poetry really can be. Sure I may not be that good at writing it, but I can still try and admire it. In all honesty, I think poetry is one of the easiest genres to write; and I’m not saying that in a negative or sarcastic way.

Poetry is meant to be raw, passionate, and only interpretable to the person who wrote it. There’s no need for plot, characters/development, or anything other than beautiful imagery or blunt detail.

As an English major, I’ve had to read lots of poetry in the past and analyze it. And thankfully, now that I’ve safely grown out of my cringey, hipster teenage years, I can say I have a brand new appreciation for poetry.

So, in honor of National Poetry Month, I’ve decided to upload one of my first ever attempts at poetry in the form of terza rima. Enjoy!

“Doormat”

She treads through the Earth
A simple figure by comparison
But contentment is all she’s known

Yet imperious beings are born
To make her feel insignificant
Subjected to ridicule, she never fights

Her lips are stitched shut
She never raises an arm to shield herself
She just stands there and takes it

She’s more comfortable hiding behind a wall
But that wall is only made of paper
And it can’t hold forever

Menacing thoughts enter her mind
Perhaps she can mold herself into someone else
Perhaps she can be someone better

So she rips out her flaws
She erases her embarrassing bits
She pulls herself completely apart

But it doesn’t make her happy
She can’t even recognize this new person
She’s become a stranger to herself

Tired of this stranger, she shifts herself again
She pieces the flaws back together
She rewrites the “embarrassing” bits

Finally, she is whole
The person she wants to be
The person she can be proud of

Next, she unstitches her mouth
And rips down the paper wall
She replaces it with a thick armor

Never again will she feel small
Never again will she be ridiculed
Never again will she change herself

The armor will protect her
It will withstand anything
But it will never hide her heart