Image by Gordon Johnson at Pixabay

Have you ever come across a poem in a situation outside of school? Maybe you thought, “Ugh,” not wanting to even glance at it, much less read it. Or perhaps you’re the type who rejoices, loving the feel, texture, or emotions of the words and what they invoke. More likely, you fall somewhere in the middle – not really loving it, but laughing at a funny rhyme, appreciating an author’s language dexterity, or just simply feeling better.

While World Poetry Day on March 21 likely passed you by without a rhyme or reason to notice it, researchers are studying just how much reading and writing poetry can affect how you see people, how you see the world, and how you handle difficulties, among other upshots.

As writer and professor Mable Buchanan Palmer writes in her article on How Poetry Changes You and Your Brain, “Emerging research finds that poetry can help us feel happier, healthier, and more connected to each other.”

For instance, one study draws the link between poetry, COVID-19, a poetry website, and mental health and wellbeing. According to the abstract, “The results show that the writing and reading of poetry – as well as the website itself – were of considerable benefit to mental health and wellbeing.”

Other research shows the positive relationship between poetry and children: “The poetry intervention led to statistically significant reductions in fear, sadness, anger, worry, and fatigue but not in pain. The study reveals promising results and serves as a starting point for future investigations on the therapeutic impact of poetry on hospitalized pediatric patients.”

And the list of examples showing how poetry changes the brain, alters how we see one another, enhances wellbeing and helps people deal with difficult emotions goes on.

Poet Darius V. Daughtry examines what a poem can’t and can do in his piece “what can a poem do?”. He moves through the negative and the positive, from not being able to save a life to what it does through love:

He ends with this beautiful piece of wisdom:

“I wonder where we’d be if the masses knew / just what a poem could do.”

So the next time World Poetry Day roles around, take the time to take in timeless tales traveling through time, teaching tenacious truths – or make some poetry truths of your own.