My Poetry Journey (+ my poem “The Dock”)

In an effort to open up even more, like I mentioned in this post, today I wanted to share about something I love!

Something you may not know about me: I write poetry!

My Poetry Journey

The love affair began when I was in 2nd grade and won a little contest for an extremely short poem on “generosity.” 🙂 I can still remember terrified little me reading my 1-liner out loud at the city council meeting. At least I got a $50 savings bond out of it…Ha!

Then, a couple years later, a wonderful writer-in-residence worked with my 4th grade class on poetry – and I got a poem published in a book of students’ poems from around Minnesota. I still think I must’ve been a pretty moody 4th grader when I wrote an ultra-deep poem about the sun. 😉 It was special that I got to read it out loud at the Landmark Center in St. Paul!

The journey continued throughout my middle- and high-school years…I didn’t write poetry all the time, but every now and then, I was bit by the poetry bug again! It was so fun to fill notebooks about the most random things: nature, animals, and those deep thoughts that all teenagers have. Although I’m starting to think that deep thoughts are just part of who Hannah is. 🙂

And then I got to take a poetry writing class in college – an elective I had room for in my schedule. It was a blast and it really forced me to analyze and interpret poetry (and write it) on a whole new level! I got a poem about the painting “Starry Night” published in our university’s student publication, which was so fun!

Another reason I think I loved that class so much is probably because it was when I was falling in love with Bjorn — and being inspired and able to pour my thoughts and feelings into poetry was so freeing and a beautiful way to capture those moments in time, back when our relationship was new.

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This one, though, that I’m sharing today is still one of my absolute favorites. It hearkens back to all sorts of memories I have of my high school and growing up years.

A little background: whenever I got too stressed or overwhelmed or frustrated as a teenager, I loved to just hop on my bike and pedal furiously down the trails in the woods behind our neighborhood…all the way until I got to the lake. Once there, I’d push my bike out onto the T-shaped dock and just plop myself down, watching the water and breathing deep and praying until I felt my anxiety or frustration just melt away.

Needless to say, I think I needed that lake! It holds a beautifully dear place in my memory book. Here’s my poem about my memories of the dock:

The Dock

Snapshots flash before my eyes, dim but pleasant
Restless, but full
A progression.

A bicycle strewn in tall weeds and the brittle, yellow grass.
Muddy footprints pattering across the rough-hewn planks of wood
A walkway to peace
A quiet soul, come down mid-flight and
Perched on a bench, fragile
Wet water-sounds wake the dock, and rock
It back and forth, back and forth – a heartbeat lullaby
Breaths of thoughtful air come from somewhere deep and past my thoughts
As my mind tilts sideways to resign the worries of today
I give them
to the gray-soaked glass of the lake.

Do you write poetry? I’d love to read it!! Feel free to link to yours or include it below!