Now and then, I try to define poetry.

That’s silly. I soon find out that poetry defines me. For me, good poetry begins as a mystery ... right before the epiphany. The sudden revelation.

You can sit a child down and slowly explain how the earth spins in a daily partnership with the sun, giving us day and night. Maybe hold up an apple and an orange for some visual. That is a science narrative.

Or ... stand at a window and open the curtain to a sunrise or sunset and simply say: “Watch. And feel your thoughts.” Now that is poetry.

Recently I had a curtain-opening experience after reading a poem that left me kind of excited. About breaking more rules with the English language.

I write sentences without verbs. I use one-word sentences. The bends and twists I give the English language are pretty tame. But I realize now I am surrounded by words I can retrain. All those beautiful nouns out there are fair game.

I’ve seen what can be done on the perfect canvas – a poem … by Joseph Fasano, an adjunct professor at Columbia University. He writes novels, songs, and he is highly invested in poetry.

He invites others to finish poems he has started in “The Magic Words: Simple Poetry Prompts That Unlock the Creativity in Everyone.” He is the founder of the “Poem for You Series,” a digital platform that allows listeners to hear poems by request. He has been posting an ongoing “living poem” for his son on X (Twitter) at @stars_poem, where he is honest and open with his messages, such as: “Always remember you were made in wild joy.”

I follow Fasano on Facebook and saved several poems for rereading. His “English” challenge I must share:

English

What language is this

that equates I love you

with I love turnips?

Can we not have another word

for passion, steady passion,

the agony that launched a thousand ships?

And let it be fresh,

yet one we’re used to:

I home you. You breathe me. We stallion.

If you cannot be a singer, be a story.

If you cannot be a story, be a song.

Say it, now,

to yourself, your love, your other:

I Rome you.

You Pompeii me.

I wouldn’t Judas you.

He cleverly points out how limiting and abused words can be. And “love” is the perfect example. (We love to love things.) He shows how we use words so much that they lose their perfect meaning. Then he offers words we can feel, that spark images or memories. Words that have personal history.

Clearly, I am into his play with words, but I also feel something deeper. He helps me see beyond the word itself. We give love real meaning through our actions and how we treat ourselves and others.

Fasano has given us his words for that kind of love, then challenges each of us to find our own.

• Lonny Cain, retired managing editor of The Times in Ottawa, also was a reporter for The Herald-News in Joliet in the 1970s. His PaperWork email is lonnyjcain@gmail.com. Or mail the NewsTribune, 426 Second St., La Salle IL 61301.