I have never loved poetry. As a kid in school, I hated “poetry units.” And even when I was in high school at Mount Saint Mary Academy in North Plainfield, New Jersey, where I had amazing English teachers (all nuns, by the way), I hated it even more. I think it was because I truly didn’t get it. Maybe I wasn’t in touch with my emotions as much as I needed to be. It just didn’t make sense — all those figures of speech and irregular word order, and free verse, etc..