ars poetica by Rae Iolene

ars poetica

Poetry is what keeps the mind alive—free.

At least for me, it’s a freeing of the soul.

It’s a discovery of will.

It’s catching a small detail, and asking, how would 

this fit inside a poem? Crafted in such a way 

that we feel a strange emotion, a different perspective,

a sudden way of being?

It’s a slow decline down a hill, 

maneuvering around trees and hills. 

It’s wrestling with the inclines,

of finding the perfect word for the perfect meaning. 

But most of all, it’s a severing of an emotion, 

like the insistent sting of regret, 

Or the rise and rise and rise of worry. 

But once it takes form on the page, 

line by line and stanza by stanza 

the relief is imminent.   

xx. Rae Iolene 

26 April 2026