The Gift of Poetry: Lighting Up Our Darkest Times
This week on 7 April it was World Health Day 2021. The World Health Day focus this year is on building a fairer, healthier world for everyone. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed more people into poverty and amplified gender, social and health inequities. It has deepened mental health struggles for many.
Word Travels runs school workshops, multilingual events and poetry slams Australia wide and internationally. Our staff and artists have witnessed countless individuals and communities build strength and confidence as their lives become enriched by the power of creative expression through spoken word poetry.
Why is this? What is the magic dust poetry sprinkles over us when we write, read, share or listen to all forms of verse? How does it heal and enhance our mental health?
Comfort: Reading or listening to poetry has the power to transport us out of our own world into someone else’s. Repetition and rhyme can soothe and comfort (as emulated in so many children’s books). Writing poetry gets to the heart of thoughts and feelings that we perhaps don’t understand, or wish others to understand better. It helps us navigate overwhelming emotion and grief, finding truth about ourselves, humankind and the world.
Shared experience: There’s great vulnerability when a poet shares their deepest thoughts, desires and struggles. In allowing an audience into their inner realm, the door for a deep connection is flung open. Shared pain through poetry, prose or lyrics enables us to feel like – “Ah! At least this person understands me”. We listen to writers articulate feelings we struggle to find words for.
Platform for transformation: In, sharing poetry, we feel heard. We are empowered; validated. Shared human experience creates social inclusion. If we advocate for truth through our personal poetic storytelling, we deliver a vision that benefits the whole community.
From my personal experience as a spoken word artist; writing poetry has the immediate effect of catharsis - making sense of emotions I’m feeling in that moment. The learning and reciting of a poem takes it to another level. An article I read made sense of this perfectly:
“Poetry we’ve learned to recite means we have another voice inside us that’s always there, a kind of on-board first responder in times of psychological need.” Joanna Moorhead, Guardian, 2018.
Performing on stage or reciting to myself connects me with others who have felt as I am feeling. It’s an emotional, grounding, healing and often exhilarating experience. I find listening to others equally comforting, eye opening, inspiring, deeply emotional, and often just wonderful.
Everyone is the hero of their own story.
World Health Day is far more than one day – it is a yearlong campaign for change. To find out more about the great work the World Health Organisation do visit here