You hear that a lot, usually from people who used to write poetry. Most of those people destroyed their own poems long ago.
But poetry can be a time capsule. It can offer insight into the development of its writer both on a technical and on a thematic level, and it's a window into the writer's life.
Join Mercy Loomis, author of Scent and Shadow and Demon's Asylum, as she examines friendship, bullying, school, young love, loss, the true meaning of Christmas, and--of course--horses and vampires via essays on the poems she wrote growing up, covering twenty-five years between 1985 (age eight) and 2010 (age thirty-three).
Mercy's frank and unrepentant commentary on life, love, and the craft (or lack thereof) of writing is full of insight, dry humor, and occasional strong language, and may leave you wishing you still had some of your own poetry around to reflect on.