Every human being on this planet struggles, at times, with their innate need to learn and grow. As unique creations, we deal with that need in different ways. My younger self dealt with a heavily deflated sense of confidence and a level of shyness and introversion that made self-expression somewhat undesirable. Something had to happen in those tumultuous, teenage years. I needed an outlet. As luck would have it, I encountered Mr. Freebairn in my high school English literature class.

I had been an avid reader for years with a voracious appetite for history, biographies, science fiction, and fantasy. My mother tells the story to her friends and acquaintances that I would climb up into her lap and ask her for words. It seems that the natural order of things led me right into the solution for my dilemma.

In Freebairn’s class I encountered poetry and words that captivated me. I must admit that I have a natural love of and flair for the dramatic. My spirit is inclined to lofty places filled with high emotions. As a teenager I discovered that the heroic strains of Tennyson or the deep and brooding thoughts of Coleridge were a salve for my pent-up soul. I wanted grand scenes and intense emotional undercurrents that pushed the envelope of my persona. I found these things in the poetry of the masters and in music as well. I became a devotee of musical groups such as Rush that delivered lyrical feasts for their listeners and musical artistry that inspired and screamed possibilities.

In this time poetry became my default outlet. Swathed in the warmth and comfort of my newfound love for literature and music, I found my own voice and began to pour out the thoughts and ideas that had been surging and crashing against the walls of my soul. As that process evolved, I learned something else very important about myself. I discovered in the outpouring of words and emotions that I was a hopeless romantic. I found that I had a heart attuned to the frequencies of love, joy, and pain. My empathy was beginning to show, and I discovered that I felt at home when I was expressing my emotions in the written word. Things I would not say out loud I could write with complete freedom.

When the storms of teenage angst threatened to overwhelm me, I could write and soothe the beast that threatened to tear at my world. When unrequited love brought gloom to my door, I needed only to express that love in words and drown the darkness in the light of literary joy. Words are joy, pain, life, adventure, love, introspection and intense moments of loss. Words are a window and a door to the universe of our experience.

Writing in general, and poetry in particular, has provided me with a lifelong tool of expression and creativity that brightens my existence and helps me to share myself with those around me. My greatest hope and personal expectation is that in the same way my love of poetry and words opened me up to the world around me, my words might find purchase in the life of another and spark their journey of self-expression and growth.

P.K. Rankin is the author of Thoughts & Musings: Life, Love, and the Human Condition. Click here to check out Rankin’s collection of poetry.