Poetry led me

By sheer coincidence I'm posting this on Poetry Day Ireland. I came across the quotation and felt I had something to say on the matter. The poem does, I think, speak the truth for some, but I would not disagree that poetry has, for many, a healing effect, and I think this has probably been particularly the case during the pandemic.

"poetry led me by the hand out of madness"

                                                                    Ann Sexton

So often, poetry starts a journey but does not arrive;

drops your hand somewhere out on the plain.

Sometimes, it leads through a series of holograms, pictures 

of a journey, then scampers off into a faraway dot.

Or insinuates that you are mad and it is the map

that will return you to yourself.

And sometimes it is the madness; so for your bearings,

keep note of the landscape passing.