Opinions on Poetry

After you have scraped your hands, your sensory acuity

increases not because you have decided you are going to
be hypersensitive, but simply because you are missing a
protective layer of skin. Emily felt things as she did not
because she had decided to be a superior poet but simply
because she was missing that protective layer over her
heart and mind that most of us develop throughout life. In
the whirl of the world, we become accustomed to our lives
as they are, to the point where we do not recognize them
for what they could be. We adopt little ways of looking at
things and thinking about them, and hesitate to deviate
from those norms. In her secluded life, Emily lacked the
familiarity and conventions that dull our vision and deaden
our senses. She saw things as they appeared to her own
eyes, not as they were glossed over by others'
perceptions. As natural as it is for the human heart to be
tender, it is also natural for the heart to form protective
layers around itself at the least touch of pain or cold. In
order to write poetry that is unique and truly expressive,
we must be willing to get rid of those self-defenses against
the world; we must be willing to be vulnerable to life.

Emily's uncalloused mental and emotional nerves

increased both her suffering and her capacity for
enjoyment. As a result, she was able to express the things
she felt for those of us whose senses are not delicate
enough to perceive them - as well as for those of us who
do feel some of the same things, but cannot yet express
them.

This certain poems show a sensitivity and an

understanding about loneliness and singularity that seems
particularly relevant to everyday life even through the
changing of the times