Why the World Still Needs Poetry

Poetry is forever

I never planned to take up poetry, much less planned on thinking of myself as a poet. Once upon a time, I was an English Major in my undergrad with big dreams of becoming the next great American Novelist and short story writer. That was my jam in those days.

But then I found my way into a poetry class and, as they say, the rest is history. I had the most amazing professor, Nikky Finney, and discovered the absolute power of poetry in a way I never expected. It forever changed my life.

We scribble our lines, we capture as much of the essence of our little slivers of the all too temporary lives we lead. We are the creator of mirrors, the managers of microscopes, and the peddlers of paper and ink trails that given enough time might lead us anywhere, everywhere, and all the beautiful mysteries in between.

Poetry has given me a different language to write my emotions in, to understand myself better with, and to help me find greater mental health and clarity through. The language of poetry has given me a voice that few other things have. It’s like handing the keyboard over to my soul and saying, “Here, you write.”

Why does the world need poetry? Because poetry is made of the same substance as our very humanity. It is a mirror, a microscope, and a magnifying glass that helps us see who we are in a way nothing else can. Poetry is an echo of who and what we are at our deepest core.

Let’s take a closer look.

What it means to be a poet

Let you in on a secret? Few things stump more than trying to figure out how to describe what poetry is, and what it means to be a poet. It’s a tough question if you go deeper than the cold descriptions given to us in too many books and dictionaries.

Why? Because, down deep, we know poetry is something more. That it is something bigger than the quiet limitations we assign to it. We know that it is in the imaginative language we use to try our best to capture it. But the whole truth is, poetry, when it’s at its height of greatness, is wild, free, defiant of our chains.

Poetry is a heartbeat running wild with the flush of life pouring through its many valves. It is the rush of adrenaline and the quietening down afterward. It is the held breath and heavy breathing that holds a life together. Each breath a comma in the run-on sentence of our lives.

We scribble our lines, we capture as much of the essence of our little slivers of the all too temporary lives we lead. We are the creator of mirrors, the managers of microscopes, and the peddlers of paper and ink trails that given enough time might lead us anywhere, everywhere, and all the beautiful mysteries in between.

More than words alone

Think about that for a minute. Poetry is more than the words that make up its lines. It goes deeper, taps into the bigger picture, the essence of things.

Like any great writing, poetry is our best attempt to connect with the bigger truths of the world we live in, the lives we lead, the emotions we feel, and the all-consuming question of who we are, and why any of this even exists.

Long before a poem goes to the page it whispers in the poet’s ear, beats in between every heartbeat, and lives inside. The poet and the poetry share a bond richer than ink and paper alone. This is the stuff made of soul and spirit. All of these other things are tools, but it is, our ideas and our interactions with the world that brings poetry to life.

The language of our souls

Let’s go deeper with this. It’s not just the rhythm of the imaginative language that gives poetry its sound, but the very soul of the poet that gives it that unique flavor that no other genre quite has or connects with. Your poetry is a powerful love language, whether you realize it or not, and regardless of how you feel about such romantic notions.

Poetry swims in the messy stuff of life itself. It is the flower we watch the bee play in and the thorns that flower hides. Poetry is as much a mirror as a microscope, and it’s able to exist in between these spectrums because it taps into the deeper essence of our souls.

Our poetry is a collection of layers we carefully peel back over time, revealing more, more, more. We could spend eternity peeling these layers, but, either in mercy or curse, life only affords us so many spins around the sun.

Conclusion

Poetry is a powerful language you can tap into, as a reader or a writer to help you better understand how you feel, what you feel, and maybe even why you feel it. It puts to words each of these feelings and thoughts, and often in a way we might not have thought up on our own otherwise. Even if you write poetry, reading the poetry of others can help you put your thoughts and feelings into new frames.

Poetry can be powerful medicine. I can’t begin to count the times that poetry has helped me, and in its own way cured me or gave me some healing salve to my deeper being. Whether that was the passing of my grandmother and the notes I wrote to her during that time, or the countless poems I have written to mark the passing of a friend or family member. Poetry has given me the means to process these events, to live in them more fully, and to make sense of the clashing thoughts and feelings these events have given me.

You don’t have to be a famous poet to write poetry. You don’t even half to believe you’re any real good at it. You just have to be willing to work at it, to give it time, and to be vulnerable in a deeper way than you might have been before. You have to be honest with yourself and what you’re writing about. That’s how you make good poetry.

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