The Art of Poetry in Your Book
Poetry exists all around us.
I love poetry. I think it’s a part of the creativity of being who we are. To me, if you can read poetry and enjoy it, if you can attempt to write some of your own, and if you can recognize the beauty of poetry in your life, you’re ready to write your book. Whatever that book may be about.
Because poetry speaks to story and music and the flow of writing, like nothing else.
There is poetry in the symmetry of that majestic tree blossoming outside your office window. Each vein in each leaf shimmering in the morning sun, slipping through the curl of a new bud, fluttering in a breeze that gently nudges the gnarled branches; they sing of poetry, in whispers and music so soft you must pause in your typing to hear, to listen, to absorb.
There is poetry in the silence of the early morning, as shadows come lightly into the room, drawing in the morning light, hinting at joy and anticipation because dawn is a gift we should unwrap slowly, with great delight.
Think of poetry like this: it has cadence and rhythm that scatter words across a blank page, as if they blew in on a gentle wind and fell upon the page without care or thought. And yet, the gentle wind was someone’s hand, scratching across the paper deep in thought, determined to make the letters into words and the words into art.
Exactly the process for writing your book.
I love how poetry shines
in a
child’s eyes; how it
bursts
in grand colors of orange,
and
purple,
and green –
all splashed
across the landscape of
imagination. ~Author unknown
The Iliad and the Odyssey
According to Wikipedia, poetry
“… has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey.”
I would be remiss if I didn’t include something from my favorite author, who wrote novels, poetry, and nonfiction.
Edgar Allan Poe captures the power of poetry in his famous poem, The Raven.
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!
Just a few days ago (November 4, 2025, to be exact), a LinkedIn post written by Gregory J. Melanson, filmmaker & brand story architect, spoke to me about how story is part of everyday life, and though he did not mention poetry, I saw the poetry in his words.
He speaks of the creation of story — from a time when humans were like other animals around them, instinctive and unaware — to becoming self-aware and, by doing so, projecting their thoughts outward, creating gods and many otherworldly creatures to answer the unanswerable: why am I here?
Melanson shared a list of seven points outlining what he considered “most logical” for explaining the origins of gods and myths. It’s number two that forms the foundation for poetry, in my opinion.
2. With awareness came inspiration.
New forms of perception (dreams, intuition, insight) emerged. Unable to explain their source, early humans projected them outward as Gods.
Reflection
Have you noticed yourself overlooking the poetry all around you? Are you passing time at work or home without allowing poetry a moment to soothe you? We spend so much time doing all the things we think we ought to do that we often have little time for reflection. Think of meditation. Think of taking mental health moments to reflect on last night, or two years ago, when you were celebrating with family and friends.
We seldom take the time to embrace the words and images that remind us we have a soul. That whisper to our creativity. That reveal our true creative nature. The recognition that we are creative creatures at heart and have been since childhood.
If you’re contemplating writing a book for 2026, I urge you to take ten or fifteen moments out of every day to see the angel wings in feathered clouds; to hear the song the wind makes as it sings through the trees; to feel the embrace of a memory you want to share with the world.
Open your eyes and look – it’s there – the essence of poetry is all around us.
Breaking Down Barriers
I have a sincere desire to break down the barriers we’ve built around poetry and art. I have a strong desire to bring that kind of creativity back into our lives.
Creativity lurks around every corner, on the edges of the sidewalk, in the way a leaf gently falls from a tree. If we allow ourselves to be aware, we can feel it pulsing as we pass. It is there in the open spaces of time as we rush through. We can clutch at it in rooms of loud people laughing over lunch. But we don’t.
Who hasn’t heard the poetry in a child’s question about a caterpillar inching along the walk, tickling her toes on a bright summer afternoon? We know this kind of poem. Don’t we?
Your book will be poetry. Not like Wordsworth or Mya Angelou or Elizabeth Barrett Browning. No, it will be like you. The words and phrases will flow like poetry. You will use the right words, in the right places, and make your readers stop and say, “Oh.”
In 2023, Tom wrote a marvelous post titled “Poet Warriors: Books are Weapons in the War of Ideas.” Here’s a quote from the post, which makes my point so well:
“Irving Lieberman read from a letter he had just received from a University of Washington professor, who said the books ‘introduced me not only to new literary friends but opened up associations with some old ones. I remember in particular Hemingway, Sigrid Undset, Dickens, and Maugham. . . . I still have a half-dozen of these paperbacks. They represent the most positive of my memories of service days.’ Arnold Gates told how, during the Battle of Saipan, he carried a copy of Carl Sandburg’s Storm over the Land in his helmet: ‘During the lulls in the battle, I would read what he wrote about another war and found a great deal of comfort and reassurance.’ Years later, Sandburg inscribed the book for him.”
Poetry and story go hand in hand. In the book On the Origin of Stories, author Brian Boyd says, “…a story does not bring about its own outcome but causes an audience to feel and respond in some ways as if they had witnessed the events.”
Is this not what poetry does? What narrative does? What human beings crave? The experience! And, in that pie chart, that presentation, that story of why and how the marketing plan worked, poetry peeks out – a word here, a gesture there, a smile and a chuckle.
Your Dreams Are All Your Own
I do believe we are born, we live in, and we grow old in poetry, regardless of our ability to recognize it.
If you are ready to acknowledge the abundance of art and poetry in the world around you and in your very soul, if you are ready to move away from the buzz words of business, I urge you to step aside from your worry that your narrative is not worth sharing and instead, throw your words on paper, scatter them like leaves in the summer wind, until you discover the sound, the touch, the feel, the experience of living as a poet.
“My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed – my dearest pleasure when free.” ~ Mary Shelley
I implore you to let your inner muse emerge. Create the refuge and dearest pleasure of your dreams – in a book.
If you’re ready to bring art and narrative and poetry into your life, both your personal and business life, the better to allow your soul a chance to sing, jot me a note. I would love to hear more—yvonne (at) yvonnedivita (dot) com.
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