Feeling Lost? Try Reading a Poem
Young Girl Reading (c. 1894) by Mary Cassatt (1844-1926); The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum / Public Domain
Let’s start with an image. You are in a restaurant, at a bar, or driving to a beach with some friends. Someone says something funny, and everyone in the group bursts out laughing. The world feels lighter, and for a moment your troubles disappear. Spontaneous laughter encourages bonding with others. It sweeps us into the present moment; our troubling thoughts, our ruminations about the past, our worries about the future, disappear.
Laughter, as I wrote in my March post, is good for our health! So is poetry! Evolutionary biologists tell us laughter has helped our species survive. Scientists may soon make that claim for poetry. Curious? Please read on.
The current chaotic instability in our society challenges our emotional health. We feel disoriented, confused, angry, fearful, expectant, anxious. Loneliness, a malady that increased dramatically during the pandemic, continues to plague young and old.[1] In the coming months and years, encounters with robotic technologies will increase, further alienating us from each other. Some researchers have suggested we can expect our attention span to diminish, as well as our capacity for empathy, and our emotions will get dysregulated, resulting in greater anxiety, depression, and loneliness.[2]
When faced with uncertainties and the profound experience of grief, anxiety, and loss, where can we find levity, stability, wisdom, and a sense of groundedness? What might be a remedy for our negative emotions?
We can turn to poetry.
Think of poetry as a place of refuge where we encounter the wisdom to bear even the harshest reality. A well-written poem speaks to our hearts, acknowledges the brokenness and the wonder. A poem can evoke laughter or tears, thoughtful reflection, and, like contemplative prayer, can spark insights buried under layers of obfuscation.
Poetry is a trustworthy friend, a tender and accessible companion you can call on anytime. When I asked the poet and writing teacher Leslie Ullman, author of the craft book Library of Small Happiness, why poetry matters, she responded:
“Poetry invites a reader into the sacred space of her own thoughts and feelings—a space shared with the writer who herself has taken a deep, carefully crafted dive into her own perceptions and allowed herself to engage in a journey towards a moment of illumination or revelation.”
Of her own experience discovering poetry, she added:
“I embraced poetry as a testament to a life lived mindfully, intensely, and where fresh language and alertness to real and imagined experience might work their mysterious alchemy to touch deep places in others as well as in myself. Yes, poetry reflects lived experience, but more than that, it is experience. The willing reader is a participant, a co-creator.“
Everything human is recorded in the long history of poetry. Have you lost a parent? A sweetheart? Found yourself alone in a new city? Are you a fervent gardener? Worried about your dog, your child, your crops? You can find poems written about all these subjects. How comforting to know we share sentiments with a poet living two centuries ago! Oh my God, we exclaim upon discovering a poet that speaks to us—Me, too! Me, too! In our shared humanity we recognize ourselves in others and the universal themes that tie us together. A portion of our loneliness is assuaged.
Not only writers and readers are cheering for poetry. According to researchers at Harvard Medical School, poetry can combat loneliness and other negative health outcomes that impact millions of Americans.[3] We now know that during the pandemic loneliness and social isolation had a negative impact on cardiovascular, immune and nervous systems and was associated with a 26% increased risk of premature death.
During the pandemic, from June 200 to June 2021, the website poetryandcovid.com (now archived as poetryandcoviearchive.com) hosted poetic responses from people from around the world to the COVID-19 pandemic. The site featured 1000+ poems from 600+ poets and received 100,000 views by people in 128 countries. A survey conducted in the final three months of the website found that the reading and writing of poetry had a demonstrable positive impact on participants’ well-being, especially those suffering from isolation, loneliness, and grief.[4]
Previous studies demonstrated that poetry helped patients manage pain, cope with stressors, and improved a general sense of well-being. It also helped a patient’s ability to deal with a chronic illness.[5]
Reading and/or writing poetry was shown to increase working memory associated with greater recall and shows a positive effect on short term and long-term mood changes.[6]
Poetry connects us to our ground of being. When reading or writing a poem, we engage in a conversation with ourselves. Our perceptions open and our imaginations take flight. The late great Maya Angelou said about writing poetry, “You have to want to. You have to have sharp ears. And you have to not be afraid of being human.”
The intensity of the times calls us to reclaim our ability to sharpen awareness of the world and of each other. Distraction, a helpful strategy when the mind requires a break from worrisome thoughts, is the enemy of focused attention. Online courses and other group platforms provide long-distance community, but the desire to be in touch with our authentic selves persists.
A poem can be a portal to self-knowledge and can collapse the distance across time between ourselves and others with whom we have shared a similar experience. A poem can open our eyes and our hearts to the incidental beauty that surrounds us. A poem reaches into the recesses of self hidden behind our rational minds and liberates us to contemplate the enduring graciousness of life.
If you are looking for ways to bring poetry into your life, here are some helpful links.
The Slow Down – a poem and a moment of reflection every weekday
Poem-a-Day – from Poets.org – the only daily poetry series publishing new work by today’s poets
Audio Poem of the Day – from Poetry Foundation – daily audio recordings of classic and contemporary poems read by poets and actors
[1] Shah, Hurmat Ali and Househ, Mowafa, “Understanding Loneliness in Younger People: Review of the Opportunities and Challenges for Loneliness Interventions,” Interactive Journal of Medical Research, 2023 Nov 2.
[2] Mark, Gloria, “Why our attention spans are shrinking,” Speaking of Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2023 Feb 8.
[3] Xiang, David Haosen and Yi, Alsha Moon, “A Look Back and a Path Forward: Poetry’s Healing Power during the Pandemic,” Journal of Medical Humanities, 2020 Aug 26
[4] Caleshu, Anthony; Waterman, Rory; Kemp, Sam, “Poetry and COVID-19: the benefit of poetry and the poetryandcovidarchive.com website to mental health and wellbeing,” Journal of Poetry Therapy, 2023 Sep 25
[5] Kwok, Jon, et al., “Poetry as a Healing Modality in Medicine: Current State and Common Structure for Implementation and Research,” Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 2022 Aug.
[6] Kelly, Rachel, “The Therapeutic Power of Poetry: What’s the Evidence?” Inspire the Mind, 2023 Jan 26
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