What does poetry mean to you?

Poetry is the goal I didn't score.

I love soccer. I love writing. Soccer, like writing, was always one of my "things" that I considered myself pretty good at. But despite my love of running down a dew-misted field, ball at my feet, despite my speed and powerful kick and aggressive defense, I was never very good at scoring goals. This was the detail I never mastered, even though I was good at most of the other aspects of soccer. Poetry is like my inability to score goals. I am a good writer, but for whatever reason, poetry was the one skill in my field that never stuck. Poetry is the ball soaring three feet too high. It is my foot getting stuck in the dirt before that final crucial kick. Poetry is unfamiliar territory.