On the evening of January 21, 2013, after having recited the poem I wrote at President Obama’s inauguration before over a million people on the National Mall, I began to read some of the many thousands of emails in my inbox from people of all walks of life, ages, ethnicities, and races. The common thread of the messages, I noticed, was an expression of gratitude for the poem, through which they felt connected to and represented in the American narrative, as noted in our nation’s motto, Out of many, one. I was especially touched by an eighth-grade class that depicted the poem through a series of drawings which I’ve since framed and hung in my office.
But I also noticed something curious: many people referred to the poem as my “speech,” indicating to me that because they felt a connection to and understanding of the poem, to their minds it surely couldn’t be a poem. I intuited that this was probably the first time in their lives they had encountered a contemporary poem by a living poet, just as I had never made a real connection to a poem/poet until my mid-twenties—which prompted me to begin writing. As a result of those messages, I made a conscious commitment to do whatever I could so that people might have an opportunity to meaningfully engage with poetry earlier in life. That’s why I am so moved by this book’s intentions, which is to provide a space to support and celebrate these phenomenal, young voices. That is also why I’m delighted to share here some reasons why I believe poetry matters, especially at their age.
Whenever I look back on my teen and early adult years I often wonder how I would have been better able to understand, accept, and navigate my life as gay, immigrant, and Latino youth had I been introduced to poetry by poets who write about such matters, and written poetry myself. We find empathy and support in poetry, which can feel like someone holding our hand and saying, me too. In turn, we’re able to extend greater empathy toward others. At a young age we tend to live in polar extremes, in pure blacks and whites, and not in the grey spaces wherein life truly unfolds. Poetry allows us to enter and explore those spaces through which we learn to embrace the emotional complexities and contradictions of our lives, rather than run away from them. This kind of emotional mapping is essential in our development, allowing us to walk through our often-bewildering worlds with more direction, confidence, and hope. Ultimately, for these and other reasons, the reading and/or writing of poetry lets us mature into kinder and more emotionally intelligent and self-aware beings.
In closing, I urge all educators of youths everywhere to invite poetry into your classrooms—no matter what subject matter—as an important part of students’ emotional and intellectual development. I offer my sincerest thanks to the parents of these poets for supporting their creativity, which I’m certain will continue enhancing every facet of their lives, regardless of their future livelihoods. And lastly, my most heartful congratulations to all you young poets in this anthology. May you always keep poetry in your lives and continue to be enriched by its power, as well as enriching the lives of others though your own words.