By Tabitha Bozeman
April is one of my favorite months because it is National Poetry Month. I used to think this was a super-niche interest, and definitely not one that deserved an entire month. Over the years, though, I have realized just how uniquely human poetry is, and how much it is part of our everyday lives even when we don’t notice it.
The most obvious everyday example of poetry is in the music we listen to. When we are waiting through singing pop-up ads on so we can finish that new show we are binge-watching, or pumping gas when someone else pulls in with the radio blaring; whether we are listening to our favorite music while we clean, do yard work or hang out with friends, or are just checking out lyrics we didn’t quite catch, we are experiencing poetry. Songs are an accessible, fun way to teach about poetry and I love my favorite tunes as much as anyone.
Other obvious examples of poetry can be found in children’s books, greeting cards and silly limericks or tongue twisters. Rhymes are easy to memorize and can get stuck in our heads, making them perfect candidates for jingles, commercials, and teaching children. Besides teaching, celebrating and jamming out, though, did you know that poetry is actually physically and mentally good for you?
Studies have shown, through MRI imaging, that the brain responds to poetry similar to the way it responds to music. The areas of the brain that respond to emotion and reward light up when listening to or reading poetry. The brain also gets a mini workout when we read and process poetry because the meaning is not always straightforward like it is with prose. The sounds of the words, the rhythm of the lines, and the associations and meanings within a poem force the brain to work in new ways, strengthening cognitive skills. Rhymes are easier to remember, too, and just like those jingles that get stuck in our heads, poems can help promote stronger memories.
But poetry isn’t just good for memorizing a cute limerick, or mood-boosting music. Poetry can actually help heal our brains, too. A study of cancer patients showed that listening to poetry actually encouraged the brain to release chemicals that lowered pain, and a study of stroke victims proved that reading poetry boosted cognitive function and helped patients recover more fully. Multiple other studies have shown that reading and writing poetry helped people of all ages process difficult emotions and experiences, including trauma, fear and anxiety, and also lowers depression scores and encourages hope.
Poetry not only has a positive impact on all ages, but also across many varied career fields. In fact, other studies have highlighted how poetry thrives outside of the English classroom in areas like nursing school, medical school, counseling and social services, and even in STEM fields as a result of how effective reading, writing and sharing poetry are at fostering connection, empathy, creative thinking and problem solving.
To get students excited about poetry,
So, what exactly is poetry? Does it have to rhyme? Be a certain length? Have rhythm? The short answer is “No.” Most of us know a poem when we see or hear it, but defining poetry can be challenging. That has not stopped many from trying. Some of my favorite definitions of poetry include technical, creative, and even whimsical definitions from writers like Samuel Taylor Coleridge (“the best words in the best order”), Robert Frost (“Poetry is what gets lost in translation”), Rita Dove (“Poetry is language at it’s most distilled and most powerful”), William Wordsworth (“Poetry is emotion recollected in tranquility”), Edith Sitwell (“Poetry is the deification of reality”), and more.
One of the most memorable discussions about the value of poetry I have seen is from a video where Ethan Hawke talks about how most of us never really pay attention to poetry unless it is an assignment for school — until we experience a profound emotion like grief, loss or joy, at which point he says it becomes “not a luxury, it’s actually sustenance. We need it.”
There are many incredible poets writing today. If your previous experience with poetry involved, as poet Billy Collins quipped tying a dead poet’s poem “to a chair with rope and tortur(ing) a confession out of it” for an English teacher long ago, let me assure you there are as many types of poems and poets alive right now as there are genres of music. You can find comedic poets, inspiring poets, challenging poets and more. There is a poem for every emotion or experience, celebration or loss imaginable. Some of my favorite poets writing today you can find online or at your local bookstore, including Nikita Gill, Rudy Francisco, Ashley M. Jones, Irene Latham, Rupi Kauer, Billy Collins, Margaret Atwood, Atticus, Cathy Park Hong, Harry Baker, Warsan Shire, as well as many talented poet and writer friends who may very well be well-known names one day.
