For some reason, poetry has been branded as a soft word. It conjurs images of flowers and dreamy eyed high schoolers scrawling love letters on MEAD lined notebook paper.

But poetry is vital.

Poetry is the ability to use the written word to move people.

Poetry is not just the hoity-toity stuff of nursery rhymes. That is poetry for children.

Poetry is any combination of words that make you feel deeply.

Martin Luther King was a poet. So was Mohammed Ali. The Beatles were a poet collective. Steve Jobs was the poet laureate of Business and Technology.

Most people steer clear of attempting to use poetry in their daily lives, opting instead to speak in borrowed cliches from boardrooms and TV.

The ones who let their poetic muse run wild, change things.

Poetry can of course inform great art. it can translate into classic novels and film. It can power a punk band into the cultural zeitgeist. But it can also give complicated corporations, souls. Poetry can be used to elevate commercial messages into things that people care and feel about deeply. Why not fill all that air time with poetry and art instead of meaningless dancing animals.

Poetry gives people the power to feel.

If the emotions are real, and people can feel better and more deeply, can we really vilify a corporation for dabbling in poetry. For trying to put some good vibes into the world as they go about their business. Or is it more akin to a king commissioning a painting in the 1500s. On the surface, these are business transactions, but it is the art and poetry that endures.

All sides can win when you choose poetry.

The enemy of the status quo. That actively challenges normal with radical language.

Poetry refuses to repeat what it’s told. It finds a new way to say things.

Poetry can be a war cry, a riddle, a pop song, a locker room speech, a political manifesto, a love letter.

Poetry can exist anywhere humans gather.

Be it in a beat inspired coffee house, or around the television in the living room.

You can bring more poetry into whatever format or platform you have access to.

Choosing poetry is making the conscious decision to be interesting and try to make people feel more.

Don’t tell them what they know, describe what they feel or could feel, in a way they couldn’t say themselves.

That is the gift of poetry.