Poetry Can Save Us

In my last post, I talked about the significance of art and how we, as humans, are drawn to beauty.  Today’s post is in a similar vein – I’ll be thinking about and exploring the significance of poetry as an art form.

You may have noticed, if you’ve read some of my other posts, that I feature a poem in each one. As a poet myself, I enjoy finding, reading and thinking about poems and the words, images, language, and emotion that poetry uses and conveys.

Poetry, as a form, feels quite different to anything else, at least in my own experience. Poems are often shorter than other forms of writing, creative or not. As such, they take less time to read (and write). As a poet, however, I know that poems must be intentional about the ways they speak their truths. I realise I’m making it sound like poems have a mind of their own. Honestly, sometimes they do – and that’s part of the magic of writing them, the slow revelation and discovery, the unveiling of each poem’s heart. Reading can be like that too – some of my favourite poems reveal more and more to me upon each re-read.

Before I continue, I want to share this short poem, Blasphemy by Martín Espada:

The question I’m asking is, what is it about poetry that makes it so compelling, so able to hit exactly where it hurts, so lending itself to difficult truths, so pertinent to our times? What is it about poetry that can potentially, and as the poem above declares, blasphemously, ‘save us’?

Now, I don’t claim to have all, or even any, of the answers. I can only speak from my own experience as both a reader and writer of poetry. As the poem above says, the kind of salvation that poetry offers is not a physical one. A person who turns to poetry is will not be spared from mortality nor promised eternal life. It is a simpler salvation, and if I had to put it down to a single thing, I would say it is salvation from self.

Let me elaborate. Despite our very human need for community and our ability to form deep relationships with other people, ultimately, there remain parts of ourselves that no other person can ever reach, even with our best efforts. Each person’s innermost thoughts, feelings, and perspectives have been shaped by their own individual and unique experiences, personality, upbringing, and a myriad of other factors. While our desire for connection and ability to empathise helps to bridge the gap, there is a limit to our understanding. Most of the time, we probably barely notice these limitations. But occasionally, there will be moments when all we desire is to be deeply seen, known and understood. If you’re anything like me, you may feel trapped or confined by the limitations of human connection. You may feel desperately alone, struggling to come to terms with feelings like shame, guilt, and regret. You may be afraid to reach out for fear of rejection. Or you may simply have experiences, thoughts, or feelings that no one around you shares.

For me, this is where poetry comes in. As a reader of poetry, I am most affected by poems that put words to what I’m going through. These are the poems that take me by the hand and say, “me, too.” They allow me to feel seen, known and understood in a way that can be hard with other people. Conversely, poems can also convey experiences that are unfamiliar to me, and these are just as important. They take me out of my own head and remind me of the many, many things that I know nothing about. Either way, I am always less alone with a poem than I am without one.

As a writer, poetry allows me to be completely honest with myself and the world. In writing, the poem becomes a safe space where I can be vulnerable and open, where creativity takes over and transforms words into something meaningful. But funnily enough, it is when others feel a connection to my poems that I am most fulfilled in writing.

So it seems that, ultimately, poetry saves us by creating a deeper avenue for empathy and human connection. Thinking about poetry like this has also gotten me thinking about how the more technical and formal parts of poetry contribute to this. Maybe I’ll talk about that in my next post. In the meantime, I encourage all of you to go read a poem today! And if you’re feeling creative, why not try writing one?