Poetry Is Kind of Important

Poetry is special. It recalls for us what it was like to stop by woods on a snowy evening, how fog has little cat feet and is the hog butcher of the world, and that extraordinary man from Nantucket. It can bring wonder into our lives, if only we let it.But we don't. Face it-most of us would rather listen to an investment banker talk on his cell phone than sit next to a poet at a dinner party. Poets are liable to recollect emotions with tranquility, or say things that many have felt but none so well expressed, at any time without provocation. Then you're stuck.These stories introduce you to poets in their natural habitats-working and playing among us, undetected. Out of the office, many lead normal lives, if you consider someone who doesn't capitalize words normal. But without poets, nothing would rhyme, and even if it did, it would make sense. Which of course isn't poetry.