Many might consider poetry a language unto itself: full of feelings, emotions, and perceptions. We all have our own experiences and feelings; so we all have the ability to write our own poetry from our own background without even realizing it. In my opinion, I don't think the importance of American poetry should be emphasized only to college students; I believe our society as a whole should care about American poetry. Throughout history, poetry has been considered important, not only for entertainment purposes, but for its unique value and readers' ability to make their own interpretation. Not all readers will walk away with the same perception of a poem; poetry is deeper than reading an encyclopedia. For example, if a student were to write a research paper on a specific animal, they might be able to look for data on its diet, habitat, lifespan, etc. All this information is for practical purposes; perhaps we can grasp their way of life, but not their soul... a poem can transform this living creature into something majestic; or the exact opposite. Behind poetry there are experiences: beautiful and ugly, usual and strange, good and bad. While I might consider a poem about hunting to be beautiful and wonderful, my girlfriend would probably read the same poem and think it was creepy and unnecessary; we may have read the exact same poem, but our past experiences allow us to have different points of view. This brings me to the main point: who is the reader and what kind of poem is it? It may not always be something you can relate to, or even understand, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't worry about it. Poetry has evolved into something special over the years in America; readers and writers, who have never even noticed the... medium of paper......r which is very close to my family, I can sense the feeling behind each author's literature from my personal experiences. I know that not everyone is lucky enough to have certain family ties; however, I believe that much of our society in the 21st century is centered around family, values, and our upbringing. If a traveler from the future were to read these two poems, I think they would have a good understanding and idea that our culture and civilization is heavily focused on relationships, family, trust and support. We do everything we can for the people we love and care about. Works Cited • Childress, Susanna. Under this roof. .• Diary of the escape..• Scarano, Caitlin. Cushion. .