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Introduction
Poetry is not an absolute. It changes with each person, each reading, each mood. As alive as the ideas behind the writing, poetry will show a different side of truth at each glance, revealing and hiding parts of the author and the reader every time. A powerful media, poetry has moved generations of people from private letters to a sweetheart, to a Shakespearean play that moves a crowd.
The first two poems I remember writing are not in this book because I couldn't find them. My start came with a poem about flying a kite that I wrote in Kindergarten. The next poem I recall writing was in the spring of 1992 as a Junior in high school. I wrote a poem titled "False Peace" for a poetry contest. The poem was about the sense of peace that we had after seeing the walls come down in Germany and Communism fall in the Soviet Union, yet the underlying falseness of that peace with the strengthening of Communism and oppression in China. It was a social commentary without heart which I'm not that proud of, but still comment on here since it was the beginning of my poetic days (who could really count a Kindergarten poem as a beginning, although really I suppose that points to the state of mind and heart of an artist waiting to be born).
I have never claimed to use poetry as a measuring stick of my emotional life. I will go months without writing a single poem whether happy or sad, and then suddenly write five in a couple of days time. I have written sad poems, I have written joyful poems, I have written social commentaries, I have written silly poems. I've written a couple poems in response to silly challenges. There truly is no rhyme or reason to the decision to put a poem down on paper. And that is literally what it is, for poetry runs throughout my being. My view of life is poetic, I just don't always choose to write down that view. If you are looking for a pattern in my writing, you won't find one. It's completely arbitrary as to when I will write a poem.
I'm not sure what each poem means. Not because I don't know myself, but because I don't know my poetry. I rarely read a poem after writing it. My normal operation is to write a poem, then put it away (usually posting it on my web page). I may casually glance through to find spelling errors, but won't involve myself in my own poetry. Regardless, it wouldn't mean the same to you the reader anyway. You bring different experiences and emotions to the table, so the meaning you find in my poetry will be different than my own personal meaning and that's okay. In fact, that's the basic premise of poetry in my mind. It's not meant to reveal who I am to the world. It's meant to reveal the reader to the reader.
The wonderful thing about poetry is that there are no wrong answers. I'm writing for myself, therefore every poem is great for me. You may not like each poem, or you may love them all but it's no reflection on me either way. Read with reckless abandon immersing yourself completely and you may learn something about yourself.
-Tait
Lifto October 6, 1998
Wow, I can't believe how much has changed in my life and my poetry in the last year and a half! The first thing I noticed, was that my poetry became more about a soul searching, than about a girl in 1999. I think that is a trend that will continue. Poetry truly is a peek into a person's heart, and I've found that as time goes on, I've become a more confident person who is truly searching for himself in God's kingdom, instead of finding myself in a girl. My focus has changed for the better. I'm proud to give you a good look into my heart.
Also, I'm happy to include about 15 poems that I recently found stuffed in various locations, including the long lost "False Peace". Several of these poems were undated although if I had to guess, I'd say most of them were written in 1992 or 1993. This brings my total of original works to 88 poems until I find some more stuck in boxes, or books, or wherever I hid them.
-Tait Lifto January 18, 2000
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Please enjoy my reflections of life by
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-Tait |