Before I Had the Language

Before I had the language 
 to understand and articulate,
 I just had the feeling.

 I was twelve,
 sitting in my sixth-grade classroom,
 looking down at what I had written.

 These words seem to have come out of nowhere, 
 like magic.

 I looked around the room
 and realized no one could tell 
 how I was feeling.

 I didn't know anything about poetry
 and yet, I had written a poem.

 It was about how life is like a game
 and you just have to go along 
 with the surprises you encounter.

 I read the poem over and over again, 
 amazed I was capable of writing something so quickly.

 Now I have the language,
 to share and articulate
 what I was feeling.

 When I know I've written something
 good that's worth sharing,
 I experience that feeling.

 My stomach fills with butterflies,
 the hair on my arm stands straight up.

 I'm reminded why I love writing
 and why I must take the ideas that come to me
 to express what I'm feeling. 

 Life is like a game
 everywhere you look is a surprise.

 I didn't know when I wrote these words
 what I was feeling 
 or that I would become a writer.

 I just knew when those two lines popped into my brain,
 I had to write them down as quickly as I could,
 before they could escape.