Poetry

Poetry as a means for writing better fiction.
My teacher holding the poetry sessions is very enthusiastic and inspiring and had me convinced that poetry is actually important stuff. I have not thought much about poetry before, and have thought even less of it.
The last thing I'd call it would be important.
What ignorance. One reason I've ignored it for all this time is that there's so much of it. I blocked it out like I have with so many things I know nothing about. Where do I start? I have more than once been advised to check out Manga, to write scrips for a market that is bigger than ever. It's probably good advise. But I have had dreams where I see a ship coming in at the harbor. It's ten kilometers long, with a million containers packed with Manga. And I open one of the containers and I get buried by an avalanche of books. All in Japanese. Then I wake up. Haven't had nightmares about poetry but you get the idea.
There is one of book of poetry in the reading list of the course so now the problem of choosing one to get started is solved. It's called Staying Alive. 
And no, I'm not buying the 'higher power' or the 'destiny' stuff. It's not interesting whether it is for real or not. But I'll come back to the issue some other day.
Poetry is important for the same reason science fiction is. It makes us see the world from new perspectives. It keeps us awake. This guy is very much alive so I know he's right. I need this poetry stuff to come back from the dead and to write. I write some lines everyday now. Little notes about anything.
It's a little like when I write lyrics but the lyrics took months to get done, cause of the boundaries of the music. The emotional state of the subject has to fit that of the music, and the scope of it has to be right for the length of the song. And it's the number of syllables in every line, it has to be singable, it has to rhyme to make it easier to remember the lines, and the lines might need to help the melody become clear. And as I had the idea of become a songwriter not a singer/songwriter the lyrics had to be impersonal.
Anyway, writing lyrics was not a means for clearing up my thoughts on the world around me. I used to postpone all ideas and commentary stuff for an imaginary essay on 'The Subject'. I have this notion that everything is connected to everything else and all boundaries are artificial, unnecessary and even evil, and that leaves us with only one subject, The Subject.
The world doesn't need an essay about absolutely everything at once. And I don't need to write it, like if I ever could.
And my novel doesn't need to be cluttered with a lot of stuff that doesn't belong in it.
I write poems instead about the stuff that is personal, private, or just stems from the thoughts the ADHD-engine in the brain keeps producing, endlessly, continuously, no matter what. Poetry help sorting it out. My brain has no gland that does that on automatic like the rest of you seems to be blessed with. "Oh another fruit fly!"
A poem is done in a matter of minutes or hours. No need to postpone it. No need to make everything a project for the future.

I catch a thought on a piece of paper
Don't care if it rhymes or will ever be read
At least, at last, it's out of my head

Fantastic invention this, poetry.
Is this the stupidest the thing you've ever heard? Of course it is. But as I said, being ignorant is punishing the ignorant the most. So no need to rub it in, right?
Don't worry. I am not giving up on the novel to become a poet.
Actually, the poetry is a cornerstone in getting it done at all.
Funny thing also is the character in the story, the legendary Miguel, whose poetry is the basis for the existence of the Oasis, the movement that becomes the resistance to the tyranny, which is the actual story.
Subconsciously I have already decided more than a year ago to write poetry at some stage as this was the first character I invented. I have ignored him ever since. But the time has come to write his poems. Maybe The Premise will reveal itself when I do.
Another thing about being a writer is that you can be as crazy as you like and always say: 'Oh I'm just trying to see the world from a characters viewpoint.'
So this week I'll be the legendary Miguel who died some centuries ago, fifty light-years away on a planet named Quira, where life was much like it is on Earth but were society was going in a direction it hopefully isn't here...
I wonder if the poetry of Miguel would be Science Fiction Poetry? Oh yes, there is such a thing! Has been around since the seventies.