“ Language connects us to one another and poetry can make that connection even closer: the language of poetry draws on the rhythms and movements of our breath and bodies. It has a pulse, like our hearts. Even when the language that a poem is written in is unknown to us we are affected by the sound of it, the feel of it, its rhythm: we experience it in a bodily way before our minds begin to think about what the words mean. Whatever our religion, ethnicity, social status, or gender our bodies all work in the same way. Our heart beats and our lungs breathe in and out.” Elizabeth Cook, poet