Scary Risky Poetry

Lovers everywhere: write each other poetry. Then share it with one another. Sound scary? Afraid you can't write poetry? Good. That means this is a stretch. A risk. A jump off a cliff where you can't see the water. Where you have to have faith. In yourself. In each other.

Those very things are the ingredients for excitement, for newness, for discovery. Finding something out about your partner you might not know. Creating something from your heart and sharing it with someone you love. Being vulnerable. Cultivating Intimacy. Deepening connection. Love. 

From experience I can tell you that this is a beautiful practice. And it can be a prelude to some dynamite love making. When you put yourself out there for your lover, you not only show that you care, but that you're willing to put your neck on the chopping block. That you truly show up for each other. And that's very sexy. Writing poetry to each other is like the kind of risks you took with one another when you were first mutually wooing and falling in love. Those risks are necessary in the beginning, because you don't know each other, and the only way to get to know each other is to lay it out there, the best you can, and see what happens. 

Well, I maintain that those types of risks are precisely the risks you need to take with each other as your relationship matures, grows, and stabilizes. Because when you no longer take risks with each other, things start getting stale. Writing poetry to one another is one simple way to take a risk that can put some zing back into things. 

Anybody who is literate can write poetry. It just takes some courage, some willingness, and some vulnerability. It takes mutual respect and safety. And it can also build those very traits it requires, no matter how small the quantity of those qualities are in the beginning. It's a way to reconnect to each other. 

Don't make it out to be more difficult or scarier than it really is. If you have trouble opening your heart, writing poetry can be a gentle crowbar. 

I share with you a poem I wrote for a very special woman. I'm not sure if I had the opportunity to share it with her or not. But we wrote poems to each other. And it was beautiful. 

Take the risk. Bear more of yourself than you dare. And see what happens. There will be some magic there. Be available for that magic. Look for it. It's there. In the words you write. In the sharing you do. In the beats between your hearts.

For You With You By You

i wish 

for just a moment

you could crawl inside my heart 

and feel what I feel 

for you

for no other reason

than to share 

with the only other person that this matters to

a singular, unique, expression

that has never made sense

that will never make sense

even to me

unless i share it

with you

like one hand clapping

there is no meaningful sound

unless it is echoed

by that very special other

by you

 - Clint Piatelli

©2016 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart LLC, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved.