Ponder this...

Do you ever learn from your own poetry? I do, all the time. It's not that I'm such an all-fired great poet. In fact, my own assessment of my work is that it is only about one step up from lousy, and has a long way to go before one might show up as good, let alone great.

But something inside me is telling me something, and this is the way I get a chance to hear it. Sometimes it only dawns several weeks later, and sometimes someone else must point it out to me.

The point of all this is that poetry is beyond being useful only because it permits self-expression, or because it is engaging, or challenging, or life fulfilling. It teaches me, and sometimes I am truly amazed--not at my own wisdom, but at the audacity of the higher self to shake me, sit me down, and tell me to shut up and listen. Not a bad thing.