It came into my life with the strum of a guitar

Dad's voice and Mom's smiles

He wrote new songs everyday for me

I didn't know it was poetry

It continued in my life with the cut of my razor

The quick stanzas and mantras I told myself to make the pain stop

I turned those mantras into papers

I wrote and wrote until my fingers bled

I stopped cutting

I started living again

And I realized it was poetry