First Poem that Impacted You

[justcloudy]

when I was very small my dad would read all sorts of poetry to us. none of it stuck, but I began writing at a very early age... I still have a poem I wrote at 7 years old, and I'm sure it wasn't my first.
however it was in high school when I had my first real WOW poetry experience. I went to a live reading by a poet named Ted Kooser. He was a US poet laureate for a while and is a simple rural poet from Nebraska. how he saw the world, and how he read his poems was amazing. this one stuck with me the most:


Tattoo

What once was meant to be a statement—
a dripping dagger held in the fist
of a shuddering heart—is now just a bruise
on a bony old shoulder, the spot
where vanity once punched him hard
and the ache lingered on. He looks like
someone you had to reckon with,
strong as a stallion, fast and ornery,
but on this chilly morning, as he walks
between the tables at a yard sale
with the sleeves of his tight black T-shirt
rolled up to show us who he was,
he is only another old man, picking up
broken tools and putting them back,
his heart gone soft and blue with stories.