If it is true, what they say, that poetry is written with the knowledge of/ and against death, that it is a beacon, a bulwark, that Love, I confess, I have been no poet.

Cameron Awkward-Rich

I looked up the word beacon and bulwark. I noticed that Love was capitalized. I struggled through my poetry class in college. I read poetry to learn about life. I write poetry to experiment with language. If poets write with the knowledge of/ and against death, I have been no poet. They say we should write what we know, and by that measure I have been no poet because I know very little about death.

I suppose the closest I get to being a poet is pondering poetic questions. I feel comfortable saying I am guided by a poetic philosophy. (I am not sure what it would take to call myself a poet. I suppose we each get to decide who bestows the titles we carry.)

I do believe we experience multiple births and deaths — big and small — in our lifetimes. That is how we understand life’s miracles and impermanence. That is how we know life’s seasons, tides, and generations in our bones. That is how all beginnings and endings are part of life’s falling apart and back together again and again.

I do believe in big Love. It makes sense to me that Love is capitalized. I am talking about the kind of Love that connects the most separate souls. I am talking about the kind of love that frees and creates. I am talking about the Love of beacons and bulwarks, that guides and protects.