Poetry doesn’t have to rhyme, be sad, or be about the moon. It just has to be paying attention.

Most people learn a narrow version of a form and then assume the rules are the form. Rhyme, melancholy and moons are conventions from particular moments, not requirements, and treating them as requirements rules out nearly everything you might actually want to say. The one part that is not optional is attention, noticing precisely and putting it down. Everything else is a choice.

Write something short with no rhyme, no sadness and no weather in it. Describe one thing you noticed today as exactly as you can. Read it aloud and keep only the lines where you were really looking.