In The Desert. I first came across the poem by Stephen Crane while opening up a book. For the life of me, I cannot remember which book had used the poem and despite vigorous searching on my part, the book will remain unnamed. The poem nonetheless holds a great deal of importance to me, it was the first poem that I actually read. Sure I had read other poems over the years, in tedious English class assignments and other such events, but this poem was the first that I actually read….correctly, and understood. It was, and continues to be my “Gateway Poem” to the enormous, confining, beautiful, disastrous void that is the world of poetry. Which is why I have dedicated a blog to it. This blog will be my written account of my poetic experiences, both past and present, and possibly future (who knows?). It will be my captain’s log through the uncharted literary waters of college life, it will be my journal in the final frontier, my compass In The Desert.