Creative Writing Commons^™

Letting Poetry Inside, To Stay, Erin Siegferth

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

As a child, writing poetry came naturally, like learning to speak. Over time and throughout school, rigid styles of academic interpretation and an air of demographic exclusivity corrupted the genre. I came to associate poetry with historical, formal poets of history. It wasn't until my undergraduate studies introduced me to contemporary poetry that I realized poems were still being created and consumed today, by a diverse and thriving community. This realization renewed my perception of poetry and gave me permission to write in a way that felt authentic, despite the conventions and rules I had learned. In this introduction to …