How has poetry helped/ changed/ affected you

[cidermaid]

I love poetry because when I write I can allow the real me to have a place in this world. I have lived under the shaddow of being an invisible average person. Average, height, intellect etc...just call me Mrs average..not that I would be noticed for anyone to bother calling me. I could write a long and tedious tale of a sad and painful life but quite frankly there is always someone who has a more grizly tale so mine will only sound averagly sad...so lets' not and say we did! I don't think or feel that i fit in the box, that life has placed me in... I am by (my hidden nature, rebellious, devious and anything but average)...so when i write feel like the other me comes out. It is something I have kept hidden for many years and scribbled and squirreled away my efforts. Why do I write?...I'm not sure. I think it is just because I love words. They are like food in your mouth and each word has a feel and texture that you can sort of play with and experiment with. (I like cooking as well and it is sort of the same process for me...look up a recipie or poetry form...try to grasp the concept and underpinning rules...then throw the book away and get creative....sometimes the results are delicious in your mouth and others just need to go straight in the bin!) I love prose which I have dabbled in for many years and poetry is just an extension of this.
The pantoum I posted was one of my first serious efforts at poetry, started off life as a piece of prose.
So how has poetry helped or changed me...it allows me to get out of the boxes that other people assume I should be in, and allows me to become the real me. (Now all I've got to do is to stop being a wuss and get on with it!) :/