3 Places To Find Poetry In Life

1. Conversation. Next time you’re talking to a friend, be aware of metaphors in conversation. Even if they’re cliches. Throw the baby out with the bath water for instance. I remember a friend of mine once saying “I had to get up at the butt crack of dawn.”
2. Advertising. If you see an ad on the subway with copy (words), those words were carefully chosen, revised, chopped up, and re-ordered. The only thing that separates this from poetry is that the words are used to sell. The words in a poem evoke a sense of self, and an ad does that so you connect with the product on a personal level. Some advertising is written in pure iambs.
3. Jokes. Put line breaks in a great comedy routine and it’s a poem. A funny poem, but a poem nonetheless. I say “great comedy routine” because if it’s great, the words were carefully chosen to evoke a profound sense of self. To awaken a memory or speak an unspoken truth.